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WH Smith eyes up assets of Hughes & Hughes bookshops
28 February 2010 By Ian Kehoe
WH Smith, the British retail giant, is this weekend considering a bid for the assets of Hughes & Hughes, the bookstore chain which went into receivership late on Friday.
One of the largest high street operators in Britain, WH Smith is believed to be particularly interested in taking control of Hughes & Hughes’ valuable concession shops at Dublin and Cork Airports. Both shops continued to trade over the weekend.
WH Smith has already tendered for the right to have stores in Terminal Two at Dublin Airport, and industry sources said it was mulling over a play for the existing outlets.
Easons is also a potential bidder for some of Hughes & Hughes’ outlets at the airport and nationwide. The receiver, Deloitte, will begin talks with potential trade buyers over the coming days as it seeks a quick deal.
A move into Ireland by WH Smith would shake up the Irish market. The company employs 18,000 people and has annual revenues of »1.3 billion.
Ulster Bank appointed Deloitte as receiver to Hughes & Hughes. In addition to several concession shops at Dublin airport, the company also operated a chain of 12 bookstores throughout Ireland.
The company, headed by Derek Hughes, employed 245 people and had annual revenues of around €45 million. In a statement, the company said that a series of events largely outside its control had ‘‘ultimately led to receivership as being the only appropriate action left to the company’’.
It cited collapsing consumer demand, the rise of online book retailing and the collapse of passenger numbers at Dublin and Cork Airports as among the factors that contributed to its demise.
‘‘The difficulty of being unable to sufficiently renegotiate occupation costs either on the high street or in the airports is also common to many Irish businesses at present," said a statement from the company.
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