'Devastating': Major Tipperary fashion store set to close

Pamela Scott is to close 12 of its 24 stores to secure the future of the Irish indigenous fashion chain.

The closures are in response to changes in high-street trading, largely as a result of Covid-19.

The restructuring of the business will mean 104 staff may be made redundant, subject to a collective redundancy process. The company is confident it will secure the jobs of the remaining 90 employees.

The shops being closed are Grafton Street, Frascati Centre, Swords and Blanchardstown in Dublin, Cork City, Limerick Crescent, Tralee, Carlow, Sligo, Dundalk, Gorey, and Nenagh.

The shops at Clonmel, Mullingar, Castlebar, Waterford, Newbridge, Wexford, Ennis, Letterkenny, Middleton, Athlone, Navan, Kilkenny, as well as the company’s online business pamelascott.com will be unaffected by the restructuring.

“It is devastating to have to close shops and in particular to have to say goodbye to so many of our employees, some of whom have been working for Pamela Scott for decades," says Pamela Scott managing director Richard Barron. 

"Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures and we feel this is the very best way of protecting not just one of Ireland’s oldest and largest fashion chains, but the livelihoods of our remaining 90 employees.

“When it comes to high street retailing in general, and fashion in particular, you have to adapt or face extinction. Pamela Scott has repeatedly adapted both to changing customer tastes and to changing market conditions. We are confident that this restructuring will allow us to continue to bring the very best of Irish and international fashion to our Irish customer base for many years to come," Mr Baron adds. 

To effect the shop closures, Arzac Developments Ltd and Richard Alan Co. Ltd will later today apply to the High Court to have Eamonn Richardson, partner in restructuring at KPMG Ireland, and Ian Barrett, director in KPMG, appointed as joint provisional liquidators.

Gift vouchers, credit notes, loyalty cards and deposits will be unaffected by the closures regardless of where the vouchers were purchased.