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Boston-based investors in talks to purchase iconic Dublin department store Clery’s

Historic department store approaching sale or investment agreement

LAURA BRYN SISSON,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, August 15, 2012, 8:35 AM

Updated Wednesday, August 15, 2012, 9:31 AM

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Clerys on Dublin's O'Connell Street

Photo by Dublin.ie

Struggling retailer Clerys, a Dublin icon, may yet be saved; the store is in talks to receive an injection of cash from a Boston investment firm, the Irish Independent reported.

“We are hopeful of a positive outcome that will secure the future of Clerys as one of the country’s leading retail companies,” a Clerys spokesperson said.

“Clerys has initiated discussions over the past few months with a number of parties in relation to securing the future of the company,” he said.

Although the spokesperson did not name the investors in question, the Boston-based investment firm Gordon Brothers is reportedly ready to fork over $14mill in order to assume the $26mill burden of debt Clerys owes to Bank of Ireland, according to the Independent.

The debt stems primarily from renovations and property acquisitions for a planned expansion of the iconic O’Connell St. department store.

Clerys is part of world retail history; when built in 1853, it was one of the first department stores built specifically for that purpose, changing the way people shopped.

Last year, Clerys lost €2mill, and €1.87mill the year before, according to public records. The store has been forced to cut hours to deal with the losses.

Gordon Brothers has a history of taking on longstanding businesses in financial trouble, the Independent reported.

Nster.com

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bobby | Sep 10, 2012, 08:39 PM EDT

Arnotts department store may be taken over by selfridges london soon.

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IrelandNorth | Aug 17, 2012, 07:36 AM EDT

Either Clery's Department Store or the equally architecturally pleasing building to immediate left, (now Smiles Dental Spa(?)), used to be the Imperial Hotel at the turn of the century. In James Plunkett's novel/film "Strumpet City", a scene depicts shocked Anglo-Irish ascendency witnessing the brutal baton charging of striking workers by Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) from its upstairs restaurant. Three years later, it was seized by James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army (ICA) during 1916. A British Army sniper later in Eastern week took up firing positions to attack GPO Irish Volunteer HQ Garrison, but was neutralised by return fire before evacuation. They are few of the original buildings left standing on the east side of O'Connell Street after British military artillery barrage during 1916. Compliments to Gordon Bros for preserving an istitution under whose clock many a date was arranged by countless generations of Irish courting couples.

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TisEyerish | Aug 15, 2012, 01:00 PM EDT

I have been told since early childhood that we were descendants of the gentleman who founded "the largest department in Dubin and it is still there." The ancestor was a woman named Anne Larkin, whose father supposedly founded the business. She ran away with an actor, John Hughes. No one is sure if she became pregnant first, or they married first, but he dumped her as soon as they reached America (the baby was born in Liverpool). I have been reading all I can about the present day Clery's and see nothing of a Larkin in it's past and I'm frustrated! Can anyone make a connection for me? I know James Larkin was involved in a strike at Clery's, but the time frame is all wrong. Sigh.

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lawyer4 | Aug 15, 2012, 11:40 AM EDT

When the machines used to erect the Millennium Spike were finally taken away, a spontaneous wave of song went up on O'Connell St: "I can see Cleary's now the cranes have gone".

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canadianirish | Aug 15, 2012, 10:46 AM EDT

I love shopping at Clery's when visiting Dublin. It's such a stunning piece of architecture and I'm thrilled to hear that an investment firm has stepped in with an infusion of much needed cash. It's such a shame that the 1% in Ireland couldn't have done the same.

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WoundedKnee | Aug 15, 2012, 08:59 AM EDT

I sure hope they keep the Clery ethos, it's one of my favorite stores in Dublin. And it's Irish--almost all the other department stores in Ireland are English, making the city look just like Manchester England. One that I liked was Roches, but the last time I was in Dublin it had been taken over by some British outfit. Prices had gone up, of course.

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