Bookseller Eason cites rising minimum wage as 'significant challenge' to retail

Company behind booksellers Eason and Dubray said the various minimum wage increases over the last several years had 'directly impacted labour costs in the business'

Company said general cost inflation had been a 'challenge' for businesses and consumers in recent years but the 'most significant challenge to performance in the retail sector remains the very high year-on-year increases in the minimum wage rate'. File picture: Denis Minihane

The holding company behind booksellers Eason and Dubray has said repeated increases to the minimum wage is the “most significant challenge” to the performance of the retail sector, as it reports a fall in profits, the company’s latest financial documents show.

Eason Retail PLC is the ultimate holding company for the Eason and Dubray book stores. It is also the holding company for a number of property subsidiaries which own the Eason retail properties on O’Connell Street and in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, Dublin.

The Eason estate now comprises 42 company-operated stores and a further eight franchise outlets trading under the Eason brand, while Dubray has 15 stores.

The company reported group turnover of €128m during its 2026 financial, up from €126m the year prior. It generated a gross profit of €48m, up from €47.2m year-on-year.

The company’s 2026 financial year ended on January 25 earlier this year. “However, the improvement in gross profit was offset by cost increases from general overhead inflation and the addition of new stores,” the company said.

“Overall, profitability declined year-on-year with underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation [EBITDA] dropping by €600,000 to €7.1m. Operating profit for the year fell by €800,000 to €3.4m.” 

The profit for the financial year, after taxation, amounted to €2.7m, down from €3.6m the year prior.

The company said general cost inflation had been a “challenge” for businesses and consumers in recent years but the “most significant challenge to performance in the retail sector remains the very high year-on-year increases in the minimum wage rate”.

During its 2025 financial year, the national minimum wage stood €13.50 an hour. The budget last week will increase it to €14.94 an hour from next year.

The company said the various minimum wage increases over the last several years had “directly impacted labour costs in the business”.

“It has also indirectly added to the general inflationary pressures from other labour-related overhead costs, such as security, cleaning, etc. 

The group’s response has been to execute a structured and well-planned retail efficiencies programme in financial year 2025, which has successfully offset the full minimum wage impact through back of house process efficiencies,” the company said.

The company said the performance of non-food retail “remains lacklustre”, which has coincided with “a disappointing book market over the past two years, with new title releases failing to catch consumer attention”.

“Calendar year 2024 saw the first year-on-year decline in the Irish book market for 10 years and while there was a return to modest growth in 2025, this growth all came from titles outside the top 10,000, a segment of the market that is almost exclusively serviced by online retailers,” Eason Retail said.

“While the Eason and Dubray businesses have both grown book market share over the past two years, this share growth has been insufficient to fully offset the negative market impact.” 

The company said its non-book categories continue to perform well, with the gift category performing particularly well, delivering 20% growth.

While its stationery and card revenues were flat year-on-year, margin rate improvements boosted its bottom-line contribution.