About 25 jobs at Peats World of Electronics are to be saved after it emerged today that two of its 11 stores are to reopen.
Peats will open its flagship store on Parnell Street on Saturday April 28 and reopened its Rathmines store today.
Earlier this month, the company announced its intention to appoint a liquidator through a proposed voluntary creditors' liquidation.
This resulted in its 11 shops closing with the loss of 78 jobs.
But due to the ''goodwill and understanding of the company's suppliers, a wave of goodwill from customers and a subsequent reassessment of the company's stock, debts and liabilities in light of the closure, alternative solutions have emerged'', a statement from the company said.
The company has been granted High Court protection and a petition seeking the appointment of an examiner will be heard on May 3. Lawyers told the High Court today that this decision had been reversed because the company had received advice that its operation had a reasonable prospect of survival, provided certain conditions are met. This includes reaching agreements with landlords.
The Rathmines and Parnell Street stores, whose landlords are connected to the company, will trade rent free for a year to allow them regain their trading position.
It is also hoped that the company will re-open its stores at the Pavilions shopping centre in Swords, and at St Stephen's Green.
But the re-opening of other stores is considered unlikely unless landlords make proposals which would justify that, the directors said.
Lawyer Rossa Fanning said the company had been initially advised it had no reasonable prospect of survival. But after announcing its closure, other accountants had advised it had such a prospect.
''I can only describe as 'phenomenal' the reaction that we received after we made the closure announcement. In particular, the flexibility of our staff, our suppliers and other creditors has allowed us to re-evaluate and re-design our business model to establish a lower cost model for future operations,'' said Peats Chairman Ben Peat in today's statement.
''Re-opening both our flagship Parnell Street store and our Rathmines store allows us to sell the stock from the 11 stores which were closed at the beginning of the month to the public whilst also reducing our redundancy outlay and it will enable us to operate as a much leaner business. In this way, with a lower cost base and a restructured business I am confident that we can deal with our liabilities, trade back to profitability and keep the Peats 'World of Electronics' name on the high street in Dublin,'' he added.
