Shopping centre chiefs deny rent row behind 100 job losses

MANAGEMENT at the Blanchardstown Centre in Dublin have denied that a row over rents is to blame for the loss of more than 100 jobs.

Trade union Mandate said staff of the eight Arcadia Group shops in the centre were told yesterday that their stores would close in September.

Mandate’s divisional organiser Brendan O’Hanlon, said Arcadia management told staff that the stores would close because of the refusal of the centre’s management to agree to a rental reduction.

Mr O’Hanlon said outlets in the centre included Topman, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Burtons, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Outfit and Evans.

“Argos has already announced that it will be closing its Blanchardstown store in July for the same reason,” he pointed out.

Mr O’Hanlon stressed that the closure of these stores were not in any way linked to any industrial relations issues.

“The Blanchardstown Centre’s management need to get real about the rents they are charging in what is now a very depressed market for retail,” he said.

Mr O’Hanlon said it was totally unreasonable for the centre’s management and other commercial property landlords to insist on maintaining arrangements that were put in place in a very different economic situation.

General manager of Blanchardstown Centre, Joe Gavin, pointed out that the lease that Arcadia held for 15 years on five stores in the centre, not eight as stated by Mandate, was up in September.

“We have had no correspondence, no discussion, no communication, whatsoever with the Arcadia Group in relation to rents for the group of stores in Blanchardstown Centre. It has never come up as an issue,” said Mr Gavin.

He also stressed that Arcadia Group had not discussed rents for its outlets with Green Properties, owners of the centre,

Arcadia Group later stated that it had decided that it was not “financially viable” to renew the lease due to many economic reasons and costs at this time.

“When a lease expires, such as Blanchardstown Centre will in September, after 15 years of trading, we evaluate the viability and ongoing business case to renew or exit the leases,” it pointed out. It added that Arcadia always endeavoured to redeploy employees within the company where possible.

Retail Ireland director Torlach Denihan, said around 50,000 jobs have been lost in the retail sector to date and a fair share of this was due to refusal by landlords to engage with their tenants regarding rent reductions.

Chief executive of Retail Excellence Ireland, David Fitzsimons, said that if rents were reviewed downwards, retailers were committed to increasing employment.