172 Wilton jobs lost as M&S deal falls apart

LAST night 172 Roches Stores staff in Cork were told they were being made redundant because the owner of a shopping centre could not agree terms with Marks & Spencer over the cost of square footage.

The staff and Roches lease at the Wilton Shopping Centre store were meant to be transferred to M&S but the deal was blocked last Sunday by centre owner Joe O’Donovan.

Mr O’Donovan insisted that he wanted €30 per square foot for the 45,000 square foot property. That was significantly more than had already been agreed between Roches and M&S and the British retailer refused to pay it.

Over the last five days, while staff protested outside their former workplace, M&S and Mr O’Donovan accused each other of neglecting the workers.

On Tuesday, Mr O’Donovan issued a solicitor’s letter to M&S saying that if it did not agree terms with him by Friday, the property would no longer be available.

On the foot of that, Roches told staff that if no agreement was forthcoming by 5.30pm last night, it was making them all redundant.

An M&S statement said: “We are deeply disappointed that we have not been able to close on the original offer to take over the lease under the same conditions as Roches Stores, which included transferring the store team to M&S,” it said.

Roches Stores store manager Eamon O’Donovan told the workers, some of whom had worked there for 30 years, the news last night. He will sit down with them again on Monday to discuss redundancy entitlements.

Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin, who had spoken to both sides and urged them to put the workers first, said he was very disappointed.

“My view is that there was insufficient regard for the workers. I cannot understand why this deal was to go through last weekend but could not go through now. What changed?”

Last night it also emerged that Howard Holding have sold their share in the Wilton Shopping Centre back to Joe O’Donovan. While they have made no official statement, according to sources they are “extremely disappointed and angry” at what has transpired at the centre.