An examiner has been appointed to long-standing Cork retailer Cummins Sports, which primarily supplies GAA gear and equipment.
Confirming the examinership at the High Court on Wednesday, Judge Nessa Cahill said a critical factor for the company’s employees was that 48 of 74 jobs are expected to be saved in the process.
At its peak in 2007, the sporting goods supplier had 10 shops, about 110 employees and a turnover of €12 million, according to court documents.
Founded in 1971, Cummins Sports has remained closely linked to its GAA heritage, producing its own sliotars which have been used in All-Ireland Hurling Championship Finals since 1976.
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Cahill also appointed an examiner to Cummins Sports’s sister company, Sliotar Sports Ltd, which has the same registered office at Waterfront Business Park, Little Island, Co Cork.
The judge noted a report by previously-appointed interim examiner John Russell concluded Cummins Sports has a reasonable prospect of survival as a going concern.
Counsel for the petitioning companies, Declan Murphy, instructed by Tom O’Byrne solicitor, said there are currently four stores operating at Douglas Court, Blackpool Shopping Centre, Midleton and Fermoy. He said there will have to be redundancies, with an aim of keeping the reducing the workforce to 48.
In the petition document before the court, Cummins Sports said four of its Cork stores have closed since October 2024.
It said it had experienced over the last number of weeks “significant pressure from the landlords of the four closed stores” and had tried to negotiate settlements but has so far been unsuccessful except in the case of the Ballincollig store.
According to the petition, the company has struggled financially in recent years and “with increasing difficulty it has been weathering a storm over rented premises held under Celtic Tiger leases”. There have been increased overheads and input costs, incursion into the market from international competitors, and losses of valuable distributorship and sponsorship rights.
It referred to a loss of market share to online trade.
Notwithstanding these challenges it said the directors of Cummins Sports and Sliotar Sports remain firmly of the view that the core business is sound.
It said the mainstay of the company’s business was GAA gear and equipment. It was the main supplier and distributor of Cork GAA gear and equipment.
This changed in 2022,. and it undertook extensive cost cutting measures, including closing stores, carrying out redundancies and reducing director salaries, staff hours and marketing budgets.
The cse will return to court in mid April, when the judge will be updated on the status of the examinership.
