logo
Zara and Pull&Bear to expand Dundrum Town Centre presence

Zara and Pull&Bear to expand Dundrum Town Centre presence

Irish Times29-04-2025

Inditex Group brands Zara and Pull & Bear are set to expand their footprint in Dundrum Town Centre, the shopping centre's owners have said.
UK property group Hammerson, which jointly owns the Dundrum Town Centre with German insurer Allianz, said the company were actively seeking new brands to set up in the centre.
Zara is set to increase its footprint by 43 per cent, from 26,300 sq ft to 37,700 sq ft, and will upgrade and refurbish its existing store. Pull & Bear will be relocating its shop in the centre, more than trebling its existing footprint from 2,477 sq ft to 8,394 sq ft
Hammerson said the Pull & Bear expansion was expected to be completed later this year, while Zara's extension was not expected to open until 2026.
READ MORE
Both retail brands, Zara and Pull & Bear are owned by the Spanish fashion multinational clothing group, Inditex Group, alongside Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, and Zara Home.
The fashion group operated 23 stores in Ireland last year, employing 741 people.
The group generated revenue of €257 million, up 9 per cent year on year, with post-tax profits for the year standing at €22 million.
Connor Owens, managing director of Hammerson's assets in Ireland, said the company was 'delighted with the expansion of Zara and Pull & Bear.'
A new 14,500 sq ft entertainment and bowling space, Lane 7, opened in the centre in January and Mr Owens said there was a 'promising pipeline' of new openings for the rest of the year.
In its financial accounts for 2024, Hammerson saw the value of its Irish assets decline by 13.3 per cent. The assets were valued in its full year results at £522 million (€630 million) at the end of December 2024, down from £630 million a year earlier.
Hammerson's other Irish assets include a 50 per cent share in the Ilac Centre in Dublin city, and the Pavilions retail complex in Swords. Both of those are jointly owned with Irish Life Assurance plc.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Ryanair to base fourth aircraft at Shannon adding routes to Madrid and Lapland
Ryanair to base fourth aircraft at Shannon adding routes to Madrid and Lapland

Irish Examiner

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Ryanair to base fourth aircraft at Shannon adding routes to Madrid and Lapland

Ryanair announced on Wednesday it will add a fourth aircraft at Shannon Airport this winter, described as a 'gamechanger' for the region, adding 100,000 passengers. The announcement will see three new routes this winter to Lapland, Madeira and Madrid, in addition to extra flights on six existing routes - Alicante, Edinburgh, Kraków, Lanzarote, Manchester, and Wrocław - for Winter 25/26. The announcement will help to deliver 20% traffic growth to Shannon. 'This expansion offers even greater choice for our passengers and strengthens Shannon's position as a key gateway to and from the West of Ireland. Ryanair's investment is a powerful endorsement of the potential of Shannon, a vote of confidence in the market here, and a testament to the progress we've made growing passenger numbers,' said Shannon Airport Group chief executive Mary Considine. 'We see a huge potential for growth and believe there is a real opportunity for Shannon Airport to lead the way in rebalancing the national landscape." Ryanair's chief commercial officer Jason McGuinness said the company is investing €350m in the region. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said: 'We've been here at Shannon Airport for 36 years. There's an ambitious management team here that understands the competition they face against the 40 countries and 240 airports that Ryanair operates across Europe. 'We are probably one of the biggest single investors in regional Ireland at the moment. We've doubled the amount of seats we're offering across regional Irish airports and we have doubled the number of passengers we have in Shannon from 800,000 to 1.6m.' Passenger numbers at Shannon Airport reached a 15-year high in 2024, surpassing 2.1m in the 12 months. The addition of a fourth aircraft will mean it will have one more than Cork Airport, which last year reported 3.1m passengers. Asked if Ryanair will also seek to increase its fleet in Cork Airport, Mr McGuinness said: 'I would hope so. We are very committed to regional Irish airports. We have three aircraft based in Cork this winter, but I would hope that could increase. I'm happy to talk to anyone of our 240 airports across Europe.' 'Both airports can grow and we can add more routes to both, but we have never been shy in saying that we allocate capacity wherever costs are best and where we can get the best long-term deals. If the DAA want to come up with something better in terms of its cost base for Cork, we're very happy to talk to them.' 'In terms of our plan to grow from 20m passengers to 30m, the majority of that growth, around 60%, was actually in regional airports, predominantly in Cork and Shannon.' The added aircraft for the 2025 Shannon Airport winter season will result in an additional $100m investment by Ryanair, which Mr McGuinness said is already investing heavily in the region. 'There will be a direct extra 30 jobs spanning across pilots and cabin crew, as well as additional in maintenance and in engineering. We're also likely to be announcing more maintenance jobs in Shannon over the next few months.' Mary Considine, CEO of the Shannon Airport Group told the Irish Examiner: 'This is a massive vote of confidence for us. The more aircraft we have here, the more frequency and services Ryanair can offer. In addition to increased frequencies for our six most popular routes, they have also been able to announce three new routes for the winter.'

Private equity interest turns up the heat on Ireland's fire-safety sector
Private equity interest turns up the heat on Ireland's fire-safety sector

Irish Independent

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Independent

Private equity interest turns up the heat on Ireland's fire-safety sector

Industry consolidation and recurring revenues make safety service providers an appealing target Private equity firms are stepping up their interest in Ireland's fire safety sector, as the lure of consolidating the fragmented industry attracts more international investors. The latest sign of M&A activity heating up came last week when Ranger Fire and Security, backed by London-based investment firm Hyperion Equity Partners, bought Aqua Fire Prevention. The deal was Ranger's second acquisition in Ireland, building on last year's purchase of KSS Fire Suppression and its 10th deal overall since launching in early 2024. Mark Bridges, CEO of Ranger, said the seven-figure deal to buy Aqua was the first of many for the private equity-backed group. 'It wouldn't surprise me if we did another three or four this year in Ireland alone,' he said. 'We are a broad church. We cover all services with a real focus on the active fire and security elements, especially the maintenance side.' Bridges said Ranger would invest 'multiple millions' in the Irish market as it hopes to consolidate the 'very fragmented' fire-safety sector. He added that Ireland was attracting more attention from buyers. If the right deal comes up, I'll take it. A good business is always hard to get 'We all want to be early adopters,' he said. 'We weren't first, but we're seeing more interest in the space.' Looking at the Irish industry, Bridges said the fire-safety sector in Ireland had many appealing characteristics. 'It is in life safety, which is clearly very important to people and something that is unlikely to be reduced by any government. It's more likely to be enhanced, because of the importance of keeping people safe. 'But the market is incredibly fragmented. There are 4,000 businesses in the UK and Ireland. It's regulated, and the regulations in Ireland are very similar to those in the UK. ​'Finally, because of the maintenance-led approach that we focus on, there are recurring revenues – and that is appealing. All those characteristics make it an exciting sector,' Bridges added. ADVERTISEMENT 'We think, therefore, we can do some really good things in the market as well.' The acquisition of Aqua, founded by Brendan Mooney in 1986 and with 3,000 customers, including RTÉ and Boyle Sports, will see the brand retained, with cross-selling opportunities into the group's other fire-safety entities. Ranger hopes to become the go-to provider in the UK and Ireland sector, with revenue now hitting £40m. Aqua's core services include fire extinguisher supply and installation, equipment service and maintenance, fire prevention compliance and fire safety training. Hyperion is not the only private equity player that has acquired Irish fire-safety firms. Dutch private equity firm Waterland acquired fire protection system provider Writech in 2021. Ted Wright, CEO of Writech, said the Mullingar-based group now owns six businesses in Ireland, with three more in the UK and another three in Europe. It is in the process of acquiring a 13th business in the UK. 'If the right deal comes up, I'll take it,' he says. 'Ireland is difficult to do a deal in any way. A lot of founders have really looked after their business. A good business is always hard to get. There will always be competition for good businesses. 'It is more private equity than trade,' he added on the competition. Wright said Writech was not actively looking in Ireland, but its 'ears were always open' for deals.

The red tape Ireland's entrepreneurs face must be reviewed
The red tape Ireland's entrepreneurs face must be reviewed

Irish Examiner

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

The red tape Ireland's entrepreneurs face must be reviewed

US president Trump's tariffs merry-go-round continues to dominate global headlines. Firms are weary of the oscillation between 'tariffs-on' and 'tariffs-off' — but this pattern shows no sign of abating. It's a truism at this stage, but uncertainty has become the new normal. Understandably, there is concern among Irish policymakers, and indeed the general public, as to what the new economic dispensation will mean for Ireland's FDI-led economic model. FDI companies operating in Ireland deeply value their presence here and the contribution this has made to their business. Many companies have invested heavily in Ireland and dismantling investment of this nature and locating it somewhere else is not easily done, even if firms were minded to do so. And though we don't detect any appetite of this nature in the market there is an issue, however, in relation to further growth of Ireland's stock of FDI in future. The continuing uncertainty is having an impact on firms' investment decisions as they look to incorporate a 'wait-and-see' approach. In this context, it is important to look at Ireland's capability to continue to deliver economic and employment growth in a (still hypothetical) world where the level of FDI is lower than it has been. The health and prosperity of our homegrown businesses will be vitally important in this scenario. Ireland has a track record of generating world-beating businesses, but the reality is the current policy environment is not calibrated to achieve our full potential in this area. Successive governments have sought to introduce various policies to foster more entrepreneurship. Adjustments are made year-to-year across budgets, but the day-to-day reality has been that the design of some of these schemes is not suitable to achieve the desired ends. Tax practitioners like myself and my colleagues are seeing this on a regular basis as we seek to help clients utilise these schemes. KEEP scheme Take the KEEP scheme for example. This is designed to enable companies to grant share options to employees on a tax-efficient basis, essentially so the share is taxed within the capital gains bracket rather than the income tax bracket. Granting share options to employees is a good way of supplementing their remuneration in an environment where large firms with deep pockets are competing for the same talent. The issue with KEEP, unfortunately, is it is not working in practice; take-up is extremely low. What we see in our practice is that firms will tend to opt for so-called 'unapproved' share schemes rather than KEEP, even though the unapproved schemes are taxed more heavily from the perspective of the employee. Why are they doing this? The biggest reason we can see is the limit that attaches to the total value of share options that can be issued to an individual employee (€300,000). There is also a limit of €6m on the total amount of share options that can be issued (across all employees) and unexercised at any point in time. These limits restrict firms' ability to offer really competitive packages across their companies. Instead, they are opting for unapproved schemes that mean employees can be offered a higher value of share options, albeit in a less tax-efficient manner. The UK equivalent of KEEP, which has much less red tape attached, works much better, and the Government should look to draw lessons from it. Angel investor scheme On March 1, the Government commenced the new angel investor relief scheme which aims to incentivise investment in startups by reducing capital gains tax to 16%-18% on the sale by angel investors of these investments. It is early days, but we are not optimistic for take-up. Again, there is a lot of administration work involved for the small firms that are the targeted beneficiaries. They need to hold two certificates, showing they are an innovative company that is a going concern, and obtaining these involves an application process which many companies would need to undertake. In addition, investment by family members, a common source of funding for early-stage companies, has restrictions attached. Taken together, we believe these will serve as a significant brake on uptake of this scheme. A relaxation of the restrictions on family members and a self-declaration process allowing firms to obtain the qualifying certificates would be preferable. Another way to increase take-up would be to allow the relief to apply where investment is directed towards follow-on or expansion funding, rather than simply angel investment. The above are two examples of how Ireland's policy regime could be enhanced to encourage more entrepreneurship. There are others, including changes to the oft-criticised entrepreneur's relief scheme. We know we have a fantastic, knowledgeable, skilled and talented workforce. We are lucky to have it. But at a time like now, when the outlook for growth in FDI is hazy, it's important that we consider how to drive homegrown businesses forward. In this regard, a wholesale government review of policies towards entrepreneurship is warranted. Brendan Murphy is a tax partner at Baker Tilly Ireland

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store