toysRus limerick closed ?

Car99

Was in parkway retail park today and toysrus was closed with signage blanked out , is it shut for good or is there another explanation?

davo2001

Nope, closed permanently.

http://www.independent.ie/business/jobs/toysrus-shuts-in-ireland-after-six-months-34419226.html

davo2001

Nope, closed permanently.

http://www.independent.ie/business/jobs/toysrus-shuts-in-ireland-after-six-months-34419226.html

Car99

davo2001 wrote: »

Nope, closed permanently.

http://www.independent.ie/business/jobs/toysrus-shuts-in-ireland-after-six-months-34419226.html

Thanks Davo, short lived and expensive venture , smyths are cheaper though , and comparing toysrus uk prices with their irish prices over the xmas they seemed to be using an exchange rate of 1.8 euro to the pound .

goochy

Silly comment often used in Ireland. More expensive to do business here than uk!

Special Circumstances

goochy wrote: »

Silly comment often used in Ireland. More expensive to do business here than uk!

True, it's a little known fact that all smyths sites have been secretly declared Maltese territory and operate under completely different tax rules and operating costs. THIS is the mistake toysRus made obviously.

Sorry lad.:pac:

Back to reality - assuming base costs of doing business here are the only difference - are smyths operating at a loss so?

Jofspring

You'd get the feeling toys'R'us were always planning to pull out. Surely a company of that size would have at least tried to be competitive price wise, build a customer base and go from there. They have come in, charged high prices and left within a few months, very odd. If it's a genuine case of coming in and not realising the costs in Ireland then someone needs to be fired.

Special Circumstances

Jofspring wrote: »

You'd get the feeling toys'R'us were always planning to pull out. Surely a company of that size would have at least tried to be competitive price wise, build a customer base and go from there. They have come in, charged high prices and left within a few months, very odd. If it's a genuine case of coming in and not realising the costs in Ireland then someone needs to be fired.

Franchise operation from what I've read. No expert on these things but it would seem the monetary risk is on the franchisee rather than the franchisor. All the same, you'd say the name is a little tainted now.

FutureGuy

Massive fanfare at opening. Disaster after that.

A few disinterested staff, poor selection and poor choice of franchises to stock. In addition, the price of games was laughable to be honest. No real idea of what was something worth. 85 euro for an Xbox game.

goochy

But I thought it was the former boss of Smyths who was in charge of toysrus in Ireland ?

surely he knew what to expect.

Red King

The layout was awful and the shelves very poorly maintained. Every time I went in there the place looked like a bomb hit it - stuff thrown everywhere and battered onto the shelves.

The staff looked like they didn't give a toss

Berty

The Story I read on the news said they had a disagreement over setting up a website and delivery so maybe after noticing difficult sales it was used as a get out clause.

iguana

Receivers have been appointed which means that there are unpaid creditors and the debt is significantly in arrears with little likelihood of it being paid as expected. If this has happened after only 6 months of trading (for the whole company, the Limerick store was less than 4 months old) then it is pretty telling about how the company was operating.

I think it's a pity. It was nice to see some more competition and my 3 year old will be totally gutted as he loved it there. I thought the store was nice enough and avoided the warehouse type feeling of Smyths. That said, I always think it's odd that the prices were compared unfavourably to Smyths when Smyths are so expensive compared to Heatons Christmas toy range.

iguana

Receivers have been appointed which means that there are unpaid creditors and the debt is significantly in arrears with little likelihood of it being paid as expected. If this has happened after only 6 months of trading (for the whole company, the Limerick store was less than 4 months old) then it is pretty telling about how the company was operating.

I think it's a pity. It was nice to see some more competition and my 3 year old will be totally gutted as he loved it there. I thought the store was nice enough and avoided the warehouse type feeling of Smyths. That said, I always think it's odd that the prices were compared unfavourably to Smyths when Smyths are so expensive compared to Heatons Christmas toy range.

strettie

iguana wrote: »

Receivers have been appointed which means that there are unpaid creditors and the debt is significantly in arrears with little likelihood of it being paid as expected.

Not always, a receiver is appointed by 1 creditor usually the largest creditor or one who has first call on a major asset. The receiver works with the intention of recovering as much of that 1 creditors debt as possible or physically securing a significant asset they have a lien on.

As opposed to a liquidator who works in tandem with the directors to achieve as much for assets to pay all creditors.


The receiver in this case was appointed and acting on hehalf of the UK franchise of ToysR Us as they supplied nearly all the stock of the Irish ToysRUs operation , I would suspect they have a lien on that unsold stock.


Especially with franchises,the appointment of a receiver would indicate a huge loss of confidence with Irish operation a a franchise will usually try to work with franchisee, definitely hints at operational issues or missing of committments
- committed to open 5 stores maybe Irish operation indicated they would not do so
- as Berty stated conflict on website or catalogue set up
- dispute on cost price charged by UK operation for toys supplied,when buying through franchise you are adding a middle man and a middle man in a currency that is appreciating therefore costing you more.
- also ToysRUs in UK are having their own problems over the last 4 or 5 years with dropping sales and profits would be an easy excuse for missing 2015 targets to say Irish operation promised is X and did not deliver.

The toy business is all down to your buyers picking 9 months to year ahead what will be in demand for 5 weeks leading up to Christmas