Cork moneylender sees success as cost-of-living crisis bites

One of Ireland's most successful licensed moneylenders is based in Mayfield. Eimer McAuley checks it out. 

Staff at Marlboro Retail Ltd are experiencing a surge in applications.

When you get off the bus in Mayfield on Cork City's northside, you pass two bookies and a Saint Vincent De Paul shop on the way to a warehouse owned by one of Ireland’s biggest moneylenders, where its tangled web of 18 companies with millions tied up in them is based.

For the last week, a surge of panicked parents have been landing into the SVP shop looking for uniforms, shoes and schoolbags, according to manager Ann Murphy.