Why the shutters are coming down on some British retailers in Ireland

A UK retailer expanding into Ireland always made sense due to the countries' proximity to each other but that has changed in recent years.

Debenhams is one of the highest profile casualties amongst the UK retailers in Ireland. Pic: Larry Cummins

IT IS set to be a difficult couple of days for staff at British retailers Argos and Iceland as one closes its doors in the Republic of Ireland for the last time and the other faces ongoing uncertainty over whether the business can continue to operate.

These two are just the latest, and some of the most high-profile examples, of some of the issues that British retailers have been facing in the last few years, but they are not alone. The abrupt exit of Debenhams from the Irish market during the start of the pandemic left staff reeling and fighting with the company for years over their redundancy.