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THE COMPANY THAT formerly operated Clerys department store before its recent liquidation has been officially wound up.
The High Court today appointed joint liquidators for OCS Operations Limited and called for the company to be wound up after there were no objections to the application.
RTE reports that the court was told the newly appointed liquidators will be investigating the conduct of the former directors of OCS in the year prior to Clerys liquidation.
The same directors have also been ordered to provide the liquidators with a statement of affairs.
“There’s no opposition to the petition so the liquidation is now going ahead,” a spokesperson for SIPTU, who are representing the Clerys workers, told TheJournal.ie.
KPMG will also be putting in place a committee of creditors as we understand it.
A landmark O’Connell Street department store, Clerys was liquidated suddenly last month with the loss of 400 jobs, following the sale of the company to the Natrium consortium.
That was achieved through the transfer of OCS Holdings, which was Clerys parent company, and in turn owned by Gordon Brother Group.
However the prime real estate site on O’Connell Street and the store’s day-to-day operations were tied up in two separate forms – OCS Operations, which was wound up today, and OCS Properties.
OCS Operations recorded a loss of over €2 million for the 12 months prior to Clerys liquidation.
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Absolutely disgusting.
Indeed… Store with a decade of declining sales and no customers closes down.
I was alluding to the way that the private equity group moved around the assets, stung the suppliers, made the staff redundant without any pay and still held onto the building and all of it being legal but morally wrong but yeah let’s blame all this on the declining sales over the last decade as being the problem.
I’m not 100% certain that all was legal.
NERA showed no interest and I see tat SIPTU did not seek a temporary injunction to restrain winding up.
This is a highly disturbing situation and it seems that there is no real political determination to do anything to assist the grossly abused employees.
Perhaps the old adage is true, that there is one law for the poor and one law for the wealthy.
K lynveld
P eat Marwick
M ain
G oerdeler
- What I wouldn’t give, to be in that room & see the brown envelopes flying, right left & centre.
FG/Lab./FF – hang your heads in shame.
- Oh that’s right, – you haven’t any…
Indeed prevent the winding up and leave the workers in limbo with no statutory payments as the store wouldn’t have opened again anyway, but sure why would a union think of the workers!!
Strange…. because none of the concessions were losing money? they were working at a profit actually? wonder were their money went
Con , you incorrectly conflate liquidation and termination of employment. The employment of the employees was already terminated on the Friday, on cessation of trading.
The winding up took place separately and subsequently.
The operations company neatly sidestepped its contractual obligation and statutory obligations to pat minimum notice and to pat statutory redundancy, foisting the redundancy cost on the tax payers.
TUPE may still have a protective effects for those who don’t secure alternative employment.
It’s business. No one made a million being nice and making sure each employee received a Christmas ham before they left. It’s Irish, but to be expected. Christ on a bike…
Correct and right about the tax payer picking up the tab. However the liquidator was only appointed provisionally until the hearing yesterday meaning them payments couldn’t be processed until the papers appointing them properly were lodged with the Department of Social Protection. Any challenge or problem would have seen those payments delayed. I’m speaking from previous bitter personal experience
Ppl complain about the store closing but it closed because these ppl didn’t shop in the store…. It’s a shame was a really nice store.
And David honesty, where is that in all this, i suppose its all right to con the people who have worked there for many a year.
David, your statement is factually incorrect. Annual turnover was substantial derived from retail sales. Looks at the Annual Financial Statements.
The problem was the extravagant over renting of the premises at a inflated rent so as to such dry the operations/trading company.
It is important to make some effort at accuracy where the rights of a substantial number of unfortunate people are stake. Even innocent misrepresentation is unfair.
The Contracts of Employment of tjhe Clerys staff were terminated in less than an hour by changing the locks on the doors. What about the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act. Yet whatever type of an addendum was slipped into the Ladsdowne Road agreement to give our retired politicians, our Judiciary in their 18th centuary garb and our senior civil setvents cannot be touched says our senior labour minister who I presume signed off on the matter. Where were Labour back benchers, ICTU and SIPTU when the legislation that made this legal when it was winding its way through the Dail.
Whats left in assets will end up in the coffers of large legal firms and good old KPMG.
Up to a 10% increase in pension
Walking away rubbing their hands in congratulations with not a thought for the people who worked there, but what dies that matter they are comfy. Karma Karma
Do the (now sadly redundant and deserving of sympathy either way) sales staff take any responsibility at all for the decline in sales, or is it considered politically incorrect to even ask?
its considered ignorant and foolish. Thats just the opinion of someone with over a decade experience in retail and management.
Don’t think any store has lasted forever. That’s just business for ya…
It’s a very sad day. Another part of Dublin gone. Switzers now clerys there is only McDonald’s left now
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