Ann Summers Ireland rebounds from pandemic

Ann Summers stores in Ireland bounced back into profit in 2021 just before the retailer axed its direct selling business in the Republic, new Companies Registration Office filings indicate.

The UK retailer, which sells a range of lingerie, adult toys and apparel, operated a multichannel sales model previously comprising its “party plan” ambassador network, in addition to its online and retail component.

Last year the group’s directors revealed they were forced to close the direct selling business in 2022 because “higher operating costs” associated with Brexit made it “uneconomical”.

Ann Summers operations in Ireland lost €2.5 million in the year to the end of June 2020 after it was forced to shutter its brick-and-mortar business for long periods due to Covid-related public health restrictions.

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However, recently filed accounts for Ann Summers (Retail) Ireland Ltd, the trading entity behind the brand’s three shops, including its flagship store on Henry Street in Dublin 1, show the Irish entity returned to profit in the year to the end of June 2021.

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The accounts, which were filed later than usual due to the pandemic, show the retailer’s three Irish stores generated profits after tax of more than €542,000 over the financial period despite a decline in turnover from €2.1 million to close to €1.5 million.

In 2020, the group entered into a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) process in the UK, similar to the examinership process in the Republic, allowing it to renegotiate leases with its landlords and restructure some of its debts. The group exited the process in 2022 after returning to profit.

In a note to the Irish accounts, which were signed off upon earlier this month, the company’s directors said Brexit continued to bring “complexity, cost and delays into the process for shipping stock to stores in Ireland, particularly with respect to the customs requirements on importation of goods into Ireland”. However, they concluded that Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union had not yet had a “material impact” on its performance in the Republic.

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They said the group is “actively looking at key new sites for the future” in the Republic and elsewhere.

The accounts also note the deaths of former owner and chairman David Gold and his daughter, former group chief executive Jacqueline Gold, in early 2023. Ms Gold died in March of last year after a long illness, shortly after her 86-year-old father had died in London in January 2023.

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