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Aran Candy, the Dublin-based company that produces confectionery under ‘The Jelly Bean Factory’ brand, has sold a majority stake to Swedish confectionery firm Cloetta in a deal valued at €15.5m.

The Swedish company has bought a 75pc stake in Aran Candy for €15.5m.

Aran Candy was founded in 1998 by father and son Peter and Richard Cullen after they identified an opportunity in the European confectionery market for an American-style high quality jelly bean. Today, it employs 70 people in Blanchardstown. The company has between 10 to 15 core customers in Ireland, including Avoca and Tesco, and a further 120 clients outside the country.

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A new €500,000 fund aimed at graduates is hoping to encourage more young entrepreneurs to strike out on their own.

The Enterprise Ireland Competitive Start Fund, which will open to applications on July 9th, will offer up to €50,000 in support for each successful applicant.

Targetted at businesses involved in activities such as the internet, games, apps, mobile, SaaS, cloud computing, enterprise software, lifesciences, food, cleantech and industrial products, the fund is designed to help start up and early stage companies launch and offer new products and services in the international marketplace.

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STATE-owned AIB has proposed a new payment structure for its non-executive directors which will see their basic yearly fee more than double, but other payments cut.

Fees for duties like attending meetings, serving as a committee chair or on the board of a subsidiary company are all being reduced.

The bank said the new structure, to be signed off by shareholders, would see the total amount paid to the executives fall by about 9pc compared to last year. Under the move, the basic annual fee paid to non-executive directors rises to €65,000 from €27,375.

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THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised concerns that the Central Bank of Ireland is not independent enough.

The Washington-based fund said it had concerns that an official from the Department of Finance sits on the Central Bank Commission.

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OVER one fifth of Irish small businesses have had to sack or warn staff over their social media behaviour on the likes of Facebook and Twitter over the past year.

And 44pc of bosses are now checking these platforms before recruiting staff, the results of a new survey of SMEs and business owners from Bord Gais/Mindshare showed today.

One quarter of business owners check social media over breakfast, a further 23pc wait until they get into the office while 1pc wake up during the night to check social media.

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Overnight comments from the European Central Bank chief heightened expectations of easing steps in the euro zone as Asian stocks erased early modest gains and the euro steadied.

“Short covering has been continuing since last week’s strong China PMI data and U.S. housing data,” said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. “The main buyers are short-term investors like derivatives players and hedge funds.”

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THE National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has reported a profit after impairment, tax and dividends of €211m for 2013, its fourth year in operation.

The impairment charge for the year was €914m, up from €518 the previous year, following a review of impairment provisioning.

Cash generated was €4.5bn including asset disposals by debtors and receivers and rental income.

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ECONOMIST Jim Power said today that the economic recovery is being felt mainly in the Dublin region while other parts of the country are continuing to struggle.

“If this recovery is to spread from the Greater Dublin Area to the rest of the country – there needs to be a policy shift at a national level to support this process and to bring jobs to the regions,” he said today.

And while the economic fundamentals are pointing in the right direction with employment improving, 60,900 jobs created in 2013, and retail sales up 5.6pc there are still hurdles.

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AS Mario Draghi secludes himself with Europe’s top minds in central banking this week, he won’t be able to escape one question: What’s next?

After all but promising that he’ll ease monetary policy in June, the European Central Bank (ECB) president must now manage market expectations as banks from Goldman Sachs to Societe Generale speculate whether he’ll go further and deploy large-scale asset purchases in the coming months.

Mr Draghi yesterday opened the first ECB Forum, a gathering of policy makers and academics to be held annually northwest of Lisbon.

What Mr Draghi says this week could provide clues on how he plans to overcome the low inflation that’s threatening the euro area’s return to economic health.

Officials have said they’re working on a package of possible measures for the June 5 policy meeting, including interest-rate cuts and liquidity injections, while holding out the prospect of quantitative easing as a more powerful option.

“An important part of the package will be the accompanying words,” said Francesco Papadia, a former director general of market operations at the ECB and now chairman of Prime Collateralised Securities in Frankfurt.

“If he says that the council has given a first installment of measures and will be ready to do more if needed, especially when it comes to bringing inflationary expectations more quickly toward 2pc, this could give more weight to the easing package.”

Mr Draghi will give a keynote address this morning at the event in Sintra, Portugal.

Big-name thinkers on monetary policy such as Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman and Princeton University’s Markus Brunnermeier will address the getaway.

They’ll be joined by policy makers from International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde to Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem. ECB Executive Board members Vitor Constancio, Peter Praet and Benoit Coeure will chair discussions.

The ECB may use the occasion to elaborate on what Mr Draghi meant when he told reporters on May 8, after leaving rates on hold, that the Governing Council is “dissatisfied” with the outlook for consumer prices and “comfortable” with action in June.

Inflation has been below 1pc since October, less than half the ECB’s goal.

Almost half of all business managers have had to lay off workers because customers do not pay their bills on time or at all.

A Europe-wide survey also found another 60pc of bosses in Ireland cannot hire new employees because of the growing amount of invoices left unpaid for weeks or even months.

The study raises concerns over the rate of economic recovery across the eurozone, with 46pc of European business managers predicting increased risks of late payments in the coming 12 months, according to Intrum Justitia’s European payment index.

The figure soared to 57pc in Ireland.

“Business managers in Germany, France, Spain and Poland are more pessimistic than they have been in five years,” it added.

The survey was conducted by the credit management services firm in 31 European countries between January and March, with more than 10,000 companies responding.

In Ireland, the amount of bad debt companies are writing off has risen to 3.7pc, while 74pc of managers are less confident about getting the financial support for their bank.

The survey revealed all customers – consumer, business and public authorities – are late paying bills, taking an average 34, 59 and 44 days respectively. Read more