Arcadia Group consists of Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Miss Selfridge and many others.
490 workers at the Arcadia Group are to be made permanently redundant, as reported by
RTE.
Arcadia Group - whose brands include Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Evans, and Wallis, and more - went into liquidation in November, sighting the cause as being both the pandemic and the shift towards online shopping.
Some of the stores, across Ireland and the UK, continued to trade in the run-up to Christmas, but closed again when the Level 5 restrictions were re-implemented.
Reacting to the news, Sinn Féin's spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade & Employment Louise O'Reilly made the following statement:
"Since early December, when liquidators were appointed to the Arcadia Group (Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Evans and Wallis) there was a significant worry amongst the workers and their trade union that the difficulties of the company may be insurmountable.
"There was, however, hope that the jobs across the company could have been saved by finding a new buyer. Unfortunately, that hope has faded and the liquidators informed workers and their trade union, Mandate, of the situation this evening.
"The news that 490 workers from Topman and Topshop, and many other stores, are to be made permanently redundant is an incredible blow to these workers, their families, and their communities. Indeed, it is a massive blow to the retail sector in Ireland."
"We cannot have another Debenhams situation, which, disgracefully, has not yet been resolved. The government must not only step in on behalf of the retail workers at the Arcadia Group, but they must also progress legislation to boost workers’ redundancy rights in the context of a liquidation."
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