MORE THAN 70 jobs are at risk after a chain of bookshops and toy stores went into receivership last Friday.
The seven remaining stores in the Byrne’s World of Wonder group were due to reopen this morning as receiver Neil Hughes, of Hughes Blake, seeks a buyer for the business.
The Byrne family business is based in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, where three of its stores are located. The other four are in Wexford town, Gorey, Carlow and Kilkenny.
The stores were shut on Saturday – when Jim Byrne addressed staff in Carlow – with signs in the windows of the stores saying they were “closed for stocktaking” until Thursday, August 18th.
However, two of the Enniscorthy businesses reopened yesterday and the other five were expected to follow suit this morning, according to Mr Hughes.
The receiver declined to say how much is owed by the Byrne group, but indicated that he is open to offers for the seven shops.
“The hope would be that everything will be done to keep as many of the stores as possible trading,” he said.
“It is too early to say what the prospects might be. The hope is to save the majority of the jobs but there are no guarantees.”
At the height of the boom, Byrne’s World of Wonder had 21 stores throughout Leinster and Co Waterford, employed 350 people and in 2006 had a turnover of €50 million.
It closed its two Dublin stores, at Coolock and Liffey Valley, in 2009, closed seven more stores in February 2010 and has continued to close stores since then as the recession hit the business hard.
“Like all retailers, we have been operating in an environment of collapsing consumer demand and despite every effort, we have been unable to overcome this challenge,” said Byrne’s World of Wonder in a statement issued yesterday.
“We would like to thank all of our employees for their hard work and dedication over the past 35 years and also our suppliers and our customers.
“We will continue to work with the receiver over the coming weeks to ensure that as many jobs as possible are saved and all stores will continue to trade as normal during this period.”