Flannels to close its Cork outlet three years after it opened

UK's Frasers Group acquired the building for €6.5m

High-end fashion store Flannels is to close its outlet on Cork's Patrick's Street.

The outlet, part of the UK's Frasers Group, opened on the prominent site in the former Eason store in 2023. It acquired the building for €6.5m.

However, signs in the store's windows this week advertised a 20% closing-down sale. During the summer, the chain closed its outlet in Dublin's Blanchardstown Centre, which it opened in 2022.

The Cork premises, at 113-115 Patrick’s Street, was vacated by Eason midway through 2022, when the bookseller and stationer shifted operations after more than 35 years to a new 5,000 sq ft store at 35-36 St Patrick Street, on the renovated ground floor of the former Victoria Hotel.

The move comes as part of a wider shake-up of Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, which includes the acquisition of the Harvey Nichols chain for £43m during the summer. The company said the Harvey Nichols’ Birmingham store is to close in January, with the loss of at least 60 jobs, while its Leeds and Bristol outlets will be converted to the Flannels brand. A Harvey Nichols store in Dublin was closed by administrators in September.

Michael Murray, the chief executive of Frasers Group, recently said in a statement about the group’s luxury division: “Our ambition is clear: to continue scaling Frasers Group Luxury globally through organic expansion, acquisitions and strategic investments, creating long-term value for our brand partners, customers and the group.” Ashley has bought a series of struggling premium brands in recent years after starting out with a single sports shop which has grown to the Sports Direct giant.

Frasers bought the House of Fraser department store chain out of administration in 2018 and has since closed about 40 of its 60 stores.

The loss of the Flannels store will be seen as a blow for Cork's retail offering but comes as work continues on the renovation of the former Roches Stores building, with a number of new units to be created.

Elsewhere, supermarket chain Lidl is completing the fit-out of its planned new Cork city store in the former SuperValu location in the Merchant's Quay shopping Centre. A €1.2m makeover of the formerCafe  Kylemore unit in the same shopping centre is also underway. The location, overlooking St Patrick's Bridge, is to reopen as a Wings World Cuisine, an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant.