Several Monsoon and Accessorize stores are set to close in Ireland despite the company being bought out of administration in the UK by founder Peter Simon.
Monsoon and Accessorize will close 35 stores in the UK and Ireland, make 545 staff redundant and seek rent cuts for remaining shops as part of a restructuring led by its founder to survive the Covid-19 crisis.
The shops to close include outlets in Dublin, Cork and Kilkenny. The company also has shops in Drogheda, Limerick, Galway, Sligo and Athlone.
Administrators from business advisory firm FRP were appointed last night and immediately sold the companies' business and assets to Adena Brands, a company ultimately controlled by Peter Simon, who owned and founded Monsoon in 1973.
The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns had made the business unviable.
Under a so-called pre-pack administration, a company goes into a formal insolvency process but immediately emerges under a new ownership structure in a pre-arranged deal.
Adena acquired the Monsoon and Accessorize brands, their digital business, along with the intellectual property, the head office and design teams, and the group's distribution centre in Wellingborough in central England.
As part of the deal Peter Simon will inject up to £15m into the business.
Adena will now enter talks with the landlords of Accessorize and Monsoon's 162 remaining stores to see if they can reach terms to reopen them when the current lockdown ends.
Adena said it hopes to save up to 100 stores and 2,300 jobs.
"We will now try to save as many of our stores as possible, depending on the outcome of various discussions with landlords," Peter Simon said.
The UK government is allowing non-essential stores to reopen from 15 June.
The UK store-based retail sector, outside of food, has been severely hit by the lockdown to counter the pandemic.
Already weak players such as Laura Ashley, Debenhams, Oasis Warehouse and Cath Kidston have all fallen into administration with the loss of thousands of jobs.
