Carpetright Ireland closing ??

Markd518

Looks like another company could disappear from Ireland over 200 stores closing in the u.k looks like Republic of Ireland is affected aswell

beachhead

Story I read last week said Irish stores not yet affected

JVince

Unfortunately all Irish stores will close with immediate effect.

Only 54 of 272 stores will be taken over by Tapi Carpets. None are in Ireland.

Unlikely the stores will reopen tomorrow.

Staff will get statutory redundancy and all holiday pay due as is normal. Social welfare fund pays if the company doesn't have the money.

For customers. If you have an order and have paid cash or made a bank transfer, it unfortunately will be a loss for you.

If you paid by card (credit or debit), and have not received the goods, you simply do a charge back. They will want proof, but news articles will most likely suffice.

Markd518

Really? Where did you see that?

Some articles saying European division not included in sale others saying they are included

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122413922#Comment_122413922

Something tells me the co won't have any money

They'll have drained the swamp

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122414232#Comment_122414232

They lost almost £80m last year. They haven't had money for quite a while.

I'm just surprised that they lasted so long as they were exceptionally expensive and the stores were dreadfully drab.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122413922#Comment_122413922

Where did you get that? Newspaper and TV I saw said the Irish operation wasn't included. Has there been an update?

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122414642#Comment_122414642

Edit - All carpetright stores in Ireland have closed.

A staff member in Naas has confirmed this.

Tapi carpets gave a list of the 54 store they are taking over. None were in Ireland (north or south)

drury..

Have domestic carpet sales gone down a lot from their peak

Presumably they have

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122415884#Comment_122415884

Yes. Carpetright also sold lino which has also collapsed in popularity; and laminate which is still going but mostly as retrofit.

Most new houses have hard flooring (tiles or engineered wood, not laminate) downstairs, and in upstairs home offices, playrooms etc; tiles in kitchen/bathrooms and carpets only in bedrooms; if at all.

By comparison in the 80s my parents had lino in the kitchen and big bathroom, and carpet everywhere else including, hideously, in the en suite and understairs toilet.

The hall and stairs carpet, and the kitchen lino would wear like crazy and be replaced quite frequently. There was a carpet shop in the town, which was maybe a fifth of the size of today; because there was much more demand. There isn't one now.

drury..

I know lads flat out with a few vans on the road doing carpet but I think it's all commercial , hotels and the like

tenbob1

Every building in the country still needs floors !

There is very few stand alone carpet shops left, most now do smooth flooring as well, wood, tile and LVT. The main problem with Carpetright was the cost of their products, customers tend not to fall for gimmicky never ending "sales" anymore, and are a lot more savvy than they were years ago.

drury..

I'd say one of the problems was the name carpetright

Why would u stick with that if they sell wood/lino and the domestic carpet market has dwindled

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122419802#Comment_122419802

Established named and people would know that its flooring in general. Right Price Tiles also sell laminate (and bathroom suites!)

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122419831#Comment_122419831

Could be right

To me carpetright says carpet and if I want laminate I wouldn't be querying if they also sell laminate.

My 2c anyway . I wonder what % of sales is carpet

JVince

Considering they had 7 stores in Ireland, the total lack of news coverage of the closing and seemingly zero affected customers, tells how poorly they were performing.

Markd518

I was thinking the very same there is no news coverage of it all. Website is still up and running aswell 🤣

Eoinbmw

They were awfull to deal with would not even supply an off cut sample as in a few cms to take home which was common practice with any other company Ive ever dealt with!

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122422851#Comment_122422851

It's all been swept under the carpet

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122422921#Comment_122422921

Well done sir, well done.👏

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122422859#Comment_122422859

They were also gougers

Tried to add two full containers of lino adhesive to the order to do a 4sqm room, and charged me "delivery" for the lino.

The fitter, who I was to pay seperately, picked it up on his way to the house - they delivered it nowhere.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122427885#Comment_122427885

Currys and tile places always seemed to be at that

They sting you on the tv brackets etc

Part of the business model with them

Feets

I bought stuff off them this year. Awkward to do...skeleton staff...silly processes etc. Place was always empty. My floors are lovely. Shame.

AngryLips

I tried to order carpets off them before - I ended up going with another provider. I imagine if my experience is typical then I'm not surprised they've shut up shop.

Hotblack Desiato

A lot of Irish arms of UK businesses are really badly run. Seems they can't do anything without HQ's say so and HQ is only vaguely aware, if at all, that we are a different country.

Go into Halfords and look at the sample number plates on the wall… yes.. white and yellow! 🙄

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122428242#Comment_122428242

Halfords also have P (voluntary equivalent of our N) plates for sale, and UK car stickers.

TK Maxx repeatedly getting in stuff with UK or English flags on them is another one.

And Kingfisher (B&Q/Screwfix) selling UK metric plumbing, at least B&Q also sells Irish size. Its now introduced so much UK metric stuff in to the system that you can never quite be sure what has been used.

Actually amazed we don't get TeamGB olympics related promotions here, or England football.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122428253#Comment_122428253

Is this a big issue . The selling of UK plumbing supplies here

Could you inadvertently end up with UK stuff that doesn't fit or what's the story there

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122428273#Comment_122428273

Very. Basically, the UK went metric, and we didn't. There is also a difference between measuring the inside and outside of the pipe

Using UK 15mm external diameter pipe with our half inch (14.7mm external, as the 12.7mm half inch is the inside of the pipe) fittings can break them, vice-versa and they can leak.

If you buy stuff in Screwfix, it will all be UK metric. In B&Q and Homebase, they usually have them side by side. Woodies now also sells UK metric but its clearly marked - they sort of have to, as there are people who have fitted out entire houses using it bought in Screwfix or similar who need to get replacements/addons!

The Hep2o plastic plumbing system has Irish size 1/2 fittings for a fraction of their full range, and as far as I know doesn't have them for the other three sizes they do in the UK; these have grey end caps instead of white which makes it easy to notice at least.

You can get straight connectors that are UK one side, Irish the other - possibly even elbow connectors and T-s with it actually. I had to, out of desperation in terms of opening hours, get a circulation pump with UK 22mm fittings to connect to 3/4inch pipe and got the connectors in Woodies for this.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122428319#Comment_122428319

Ok thanks, so safest to avoid the diy stores completely and go to the plumbing suppliers where the plumbers get their gear

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122428342#Comment_122428342

Yeah, although if any DIYer has done a job in your house before your ownership, you could have some UK stuff you don't know about!

martingriff

Shows how much I pay attention to DIY to not know ireland is not metric or though about it

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122428410#Comment_122428410

It's usually the other way round

UK always seems slow to switch from imperial in other areas

Hotblack Desiato

UK construction trades went fully metric ~50 years ago

that's why you get all the 2440x1220mm sheets of chipboard 😉

I wanted some fully metric measuring tapes (why the only ones you can get here are useless on one side, beats me). No problem getting them from the UK though, pre-Brexit.

Another funny one - about 15 years ago we were getting our kitchen tiled. Tiler measured up in feet and inches and VERY laboriously converted that to sq yd, and then the conversion factor to sq m. Fair enough, he's old school…

We went to the tile shop, told them how many sq m we needed. Prices were in sq yd (how is that legal?). They converted to sq yd to give us a price. But of course the tiles came from Spain and each box was 1/2 a square metre… you couldn't make idiocy like this up.

Markd518

Just seen Ted Baker closing all stores in 3 weeks.....

Homebase is in talks to be sold

Alot of uk chains seems to be shutting up shop here

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122430922#Comment_122430922

Homebase Ireland is in separate talks to be sold to B&Q, they have next to no store overlap so should keep most or all open if they do.

UK domestic economy is in bits

Markd518

Would probably take over the Irish stores and rebrand them all to B&Q

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122430939#Comment_122430939

That's the intent, yes. The UK parent was not (officially…) up for sale which this process started.

Could still fall through.

Hotblack Desiato

In the longer run we will probably see more EU chains here instead of UK... Decathlon for one is doing well. I'll get my tiniest violin out for the UK's reaping of what they sowed.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122430922#Comment_122430922

Nowt to do with Ireland per se.

We are in the EU, the UK is not. It adds a few extra layers of administration for what is a very small market.

The only thing we have in common is the same language.

Plenty of European retailers looking to open here.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122432328#Comment_122432328

Are they ? Who ?

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122433407#Comment_122433407

Normal

Lovisa

Douglas

Sinso

Reserved

Mohito

Sostrene green also looking at extra stores and miniso.

Probably more, but above have been mentioned as specifically looking at Ireland.

Kukoon Rugs from Northern Ireland also planning to open here and possibly favourite to take 2 or 3 of the carpetright stores

Markd518

Think Miniso have left Ireland completely now they closed their Jervis Street Store this year

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122430922#Comment_122430922

Ted Baker went into administration earlier this year.

The UK stores are due to close in 3 weeks also, not just here.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122435179#Comment_122435179

yep. However it is open for franchise, but I don't think it suits the market here. - Hence its not listed in my post above. (You may be mixing up with Sinso - a cosmetics store which has appointed a property agent here)

Markd518

My apologies I mixed them up ! I think future retail will be more Non Uk retailers opening up here as opposed to before for sure

oneweb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122428253#Comment_122428253

Be amazed no more! There's an ad with a British athlete for Persil. The one where they go UV light to show his, eh, spunk stains.

But I guess we shouldn't complain, UK telly gets all our "slebs" (yer wan and her Theodore, Angela Scanlon and her dog and her ma and a slice of cake she seems repulsed by, Craig Doyle and his double glazing…

WildCardDoW

I was happy to discover Home Store are fully Irish. Only slightly related to what everyone else is discussing.

I just bought carpet for the stairs, I was considering CR as well - lucky I didn't. I suppose I never would have - I mean they're more expensive than finding a local installer as they're basically adding an extra layer of bureaucracy to the whole process.

Went with a lad who clearly gets all same carpets as Des Kelly in the end.

L1011

Homestore&more were bought by Argos, they couldn't make it work in the UK and sold back to the Irish founder.

WildCardDoW

Learned something new today, thank you!

Googled it and found this:

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/home-retail-sells-homestoremore-for-13m/29235378.html

They may have restarted their attempts to branch out to the UK as they've two scottish stores which is up on the in store "about us" and on their website.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122448674#Comment_122448674

Not correct

Argos took a minority 33% share holding in home store in 2007. They sold it back in 2013 at almost the same money.

They were planning to expand in the UK, but I don't think they ever proceeded with any stores. Home store themselves have since opened two stores in Scotland (2017 2018)

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122460346#Comment_122460346

I thought they had increased that shareholding significantly after 2007, but can't find anything to confirm that; and the Indo article about the sale says 33% so presumably I was misremembering.

Their current ownership structure is a (deliberately) complex mess, its an unlimited company and the shares are held through a Manx company; IOM having extremely opaque ownership rules.

There were five stores in England, which flopped. These appear to have owned 100% by Argos, presumably licencing the name from the Irish company if they were only partial non-controlling shareholders - the Homestore & More Ltd in the UK was only dissolved in 2021 by Sainsburys.