John Burns: H&M says goodbye to Dublin city centre store

H&M, due to be one of the anchor tenants at the reopened Clerys on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, has shut its outlet on South King Street. H&M had been occupying an ambitious 1,670sq m (18,000sq ft) and reportedly paying a base rent of €800,000 with a turnover-related top-up of 9 per cent. The shopping complex beside the Gaiety Theatre was built by developer Joe O’Reilly before the financial crash, and bought by global property investor Hines five years ago.

“We continuously need to evaluate and develop our business to meet our customers’ needs and offer the best possible shopping experience, whether it’s online or in physical stores,” H&M told us. “Sometimes decisions must be made to enable long-term growth. This means we sometimes need to close stores.”

No sign yet of its 2,800sq m (30,000 sq ft unit) in Clerys, where the construction phase finished in June. A spokesperson there said: “Clerys’ retail fit-out phase is currently under way and the development remains on track for its planned opening ahead of the Christmas season.”

Say hello to higher prices from GoCar from next month

“Say hello to the newest members of the GoCar family,” begins an announcement from the Irish car-sharing service about two new vehicles in its fleet. The additions are a “GoLocal” car costing €9 per hour or €50 for a day, and a bigger “GoExplore Plus” at €15 per hour or €80 a day. But GoCar customers can also say hello to higher prices from September 1st.

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The excess – the portion of the repair costs for which you are liable in the case of an accident – is going from €1,500 to €2,000, a 33 per cent increase. The current valeting charge of €100 for returning a dirty car is increasing to €150, plus a €30 administration charge. At the moment, leaving a GoCar too far away from the Go base costs you €50 in Dublin and €100 elsewhere, but that’s going up to €150 if returned off-base in the same county or a whopping €300 if returned off-base in a different county, and “a €30 processing fee will also apply”.

Getting clamped in a GoCar will also become more expensive. Currently, its customers pay €25 to €50, depending on the location, but from next month it will be the clamp-release fee, plus that €30 processing fee. Late returns now incur a charge of €25 plus 1.5 times the hourly rate. That’s going up to “a rate of up to 300 per cent of the booked hourly rate plus a €25 fee if the next customer is inconvenienced”, according to the notice.

The company blames “rising operating costs and inflationary pressures facing the business” for the increase in charges, which it has “endeavoured to keep to a minimum insofar as is possible”. Sure, but it strikes us these add-on charges – for valeting, being clamped or late returns – are most likely to be incurred by befuddled or time-pressured tourists. Who may already have formed a view about Ireland being a rip-off.

BoyleSports takes a punt on international expansion

BoyleSports, Ireland’s largest independent bookmaker, opened its 49th shop in the UK on Wednesday, and will bring up the half century in Nuneaton on September 6th. The company may have been a bit slow out of the starting gates, but it has got up a fair old gallop now, with 390 retail shops across Ireland and the UK.

Vlad Kaltenieks, the Latvian law graduate appointed chief executive last December, has a track record of building online platforms at other gambling outfits, including William Hill, but has declared himself a “strong believer in retail”.

“Further openings are planned, which will take our shop count in the UK to the early 50s by the end of the year,” says Sharon McHugh, head of PR and sponsorship. “We are trading in South Africa under the BoyleSports brand, where the football player Bernard Parker has been appointed brand ambassador, and last April we acquired the Peruvian operator Timberazo.”

[ Movers and shakers: leadership changes at 10 of Ireland's key businesses ]

Management is said to be constantly assessing new markets, “something Vlad Kaltenieks has made no secret of, with South America being a core strategic location for future growth”. Peru, with a population of over 30 million and currently rolling out a regulatory framework, is regarded as particularly promising. It’s a long way from Markethill, Co Armagh, where John Boyle opened his first bookie shop in 1982.

Slow progress on AI strategy

Dara Calleary reckons the Government has made “significant strides” in meeting the challenges posed by AI. In a progress report on the National AI Strategy published by the junior minister this week, we’re told about the appointment of an AI ambassador, the establishment of an Enterprise Digital Advisory Forum, the convening of a national youth assembly, and the joining of a global partnership. Lots of chat, but where’s the action?

Another AI talking shop set up last October was the Working Group on Trustworthy and Ethical AI, which is to draw up guidelines for the public sector. In reply to a recent Dáil question, enterprise minister Simon Coveney said the working group had met twice, and developed a draft document, on which “work will continue to progress”. While that meanders along, AI is busy disrupting the music and film industries and generally developing at a speed that frightens some scientists. We may need to “progress” a little faster.

[ Roadmap for 'safe and ethical' use of AI is published by Government ]

Smurfit views carbon capture as ‘cheating’

Carbon capture and storage – basically taking carbon dioxide out of the air and piping it underground – is being hotly debated in Britain after prime minister Rishi Sunak announced support for the technology, even as he gave permission for more oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. Totally unconvinced is Tony Smurfit, the straight-shooting chief executive of Smurfit Kappa, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of paper packaging, who has described carbon capture as “cheating” and “greenwashing”.

In an interview with Times Radio, Smurfit predicted that the EU will eventually punish British companies that don’t decarbonise. “You have to invest to reduce your carbon footprint – that’s what the European Union is going to make sure happens,” he said. “They want to encourage, and make sure, companies like mine invest in reducing our CO2. They then have to deal with countries [not] doing that, maybe like the United States, perhaps the UK, and in that scenario they will put some border tariffs on, to make sure European industry isn’t completely slaughtered.”

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Smurfit does the walk as well as the talk. His company has spent €11.5 million redesigning its paper mill in Zulpich, Germany, to give it a more sustainable fuel source, thereby reducing emissions by 25 per cent, started a district heating project in Austria, and successfully trialled hydrogen gas at its Saillat plant in France.

An Post gets green light to retain GPO banners

An Post has overcome an objection and got planning permission to hang two banners outside the GPO for another three years. Opposed by the Dublin Civic Trust, the banners advertise an exhibition in the GPO museum. When it opened in 2016 during the centenary of the Easter Rising, the exhibition attracted over 160,000 visitors, but that had halved even before Covid. In its planning application, An Post cited crime on O’Connell Street as one of the reasons why the exhibition isn’t doing better.

Hanging 6.5m-long banners, however tasteful, from the entrance portico of Dublin’s most historic building is obviously undesirable. An Post now has three years to come up with a better solution