This article is from page 8 of the 2013-04-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
TWO retail chains in Clare under went major changes this week.
The Clare branch of the book shop chain Hughes and Hughes is to come under Eason’s umbrella next month, while video rental Xt ra-vision’s branches went into receivership, yesterday, Monday.
The jobs of t he staff at t he Ennis and Shannon branches hang i n t he balance as t he joint receivers attempts to find a buyer for the t roubled fil m and games rent al business.
Operations at the movie rent al chai n at both stores are expected to continue as normal.
In a st atement, Xt ra-vision confir med that all gift cards and customer credit balances remain unaffected and are ful ly redeemable.
It added t he company said that it has become unable to meet its debts as t hey fall due as a result of the wit hdrawal of t rade credit by a number of its key suppliers.
Xtra-vision has been negatively affected by the rise in online streaming of movies and digit al pi racy.
“Whi le the company’s ret ail business conti nues to grow, its movie rental business has declined more rapidly t han anticipated, most noticeably in areas with high speed broadband, which is linked to high levels of i llegal downloading,” the st atement said.
Meanwhile Hughes and Hughes in Ennis is one of three Hughes and Hughes shops to go under the Eason & Co franchise.
Eason reached agreement with Hughes and Hughes for its stores in Ennis, St Stephen’s Green and Sant r y to transfer and operate as Eason franchises from May 2013.
A franchise store will also open this year in Shannon.
Coupled with two new openings in Mallow and Kil lar ney, the Shan- non shop will be par t of t he new 35 jobs to be created.
Hughes & Hughes was founded in 1986. It was placed into receivership in early 2010, owing € 9 million to Ulster Bank, but Derek Hughes acqui red the rights to the name later that year and, with t he backing of Aidan Masterson and Pierce Molony of Bus Stop newsagents, he opened six shops under t he Hughes & Hughes name.
Mr Hughes said going the franchise route with Eason would reduce its dependence on book sales – they account for just 40 per cent of Eason’s revenues – and cut out cent ral overheads.