Hughes & Hughes Dun Laoghaire
The Irish Times writes:
However, industry observers pointed to the company’s rapid growth in recent years as playing a significant role in its downfall. The chain expanded its presence in shopping malls such as the Pavilions Shopping Centre in Swords and Dundrum Town Centre at the height of the boom, locking itself into high rents.
The Irish Independent writes:
The latest accounts for Hughes & Hughes show that the bookseller posted sales of more than €37m to the 53 weeks ended March 2008, up more than €6m year-on-year.
The 2008 year also saw the company return to profit and the directors expressed confidence of “future progress” when they signed off their report in August 2008, just before the financial collapse.
The company closed the year with bank loans of more than €5.8m and shareholders’ loans of €750,000. The debt is likely to have gone up since then, given the business’ expansion.
Company filings also show that Ulster Bank has a number of charges registered against Hughes & Hughes.
Mediacontact writes:
Just before Christmas we wanted to buy 60 copies to the wonderful “Tribes” by US marketing Guru Seth Godin to send to customers as a thank you present. I phoned around and the price in Hughes & Hughes was €16 per copy. We ended up getting the books on Amazon.co.uk for just €7.50 per copy. The price was the same on Amazon whether we were was getting one copy or 70. Do you see now why Hughes & Hughes is gone out of business?
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