A NEW business cycle is hoped for at a Cork city building steeped in cycling and sporting lore — and an adjacent idle 1.3 acre site which housed another iconic Cork business is also on the letting market.

Half of the Brooks Haughton timber and plastering stores across the country are to reopen for at least the next week in a last-gasp attempt to find a buyer for the stricken firm.

Up to 225 jobs at one of Cork’s oldest institutions are on the line after it took management at Brooks Haughton timber suppliers just 10 minutes to tell staff the firm was being wound up.