Compustore closes retail outlets and faces liquidation

THE computer retailer Compustore has closed a number of its branches around the country.

Staff at several of its outlets were locked out over the weekend and the Compustore company is expected to be put into liquidation. A number of outlets are run on a franchise basis and these are expected to remain open.

Compustore has three outlets in Dublin and also runs a store selling Apple Computer products. The Dublin outlets are owned by the company directly.

The company employed about 130 people and around half are expected to lose their jobs.

The company was founded by Kevin Buckley in 1992 and just a couple of years ago it was seeing people to take on new franchises.

However, it is thought that the entry of the likes of Dixons and PC World, offering huge discounts, have hit the company’s sales hard.

Apart from Dublin and Galway, the company has outlets in Cork, Kilkenny, Tralee, Dundalk, Wexford, Carlow and Letterkenny.

Many of these branches were not answering phone calls on Tuesday. Its Limerick shop was shut after poor Christmas trading earlier this year.

The company is owned equally by Mr Buckley, Dermot Allen, Seán Finnerty and James Finnerty.

The last accounts filed for the company, which only cover 2001, show its turnover grew 24% to €38 million and it made an operating profit of €520,000.

Attempts to contact the company for comment last night were unsuccessful.