THE 10 Saxone shoe shops in the Republic are not affected by the financial difficulties of the Facia Group in Britain, according to local management.
Last year, the British Saxone outlets were sold to the Facia Group, which went into receivership over the weekend. But the Irish shops were not part of the Facia deal and are up for sale separately by Sears, Irish management stressed.
However, the Sock Shop operation in Ireland has been put up for sale along with its British parent, which is part of the Facia Group, according to the receiver of the group, the accountants KPMG.
Plans by another part of the Facia group the fashion chain Red or Dead to open in Temple Bar may be postponed, according to a spokeswoman the KPMG.
Red or Dead recently leased 3,000 square feet of the Green Building in Temple bar.
The British Saxone chain went into administration on Monday along with two other shoe shop chains owned by Facia, Freeman Hardy Willis and Curtess.
Price Waterhouse were appointed administrators after its lawyers struck an out of court deal with KPMG.
Firms in administration are protected from creditors and can continue as going concerns while those in receivership may be closed or sold off to pay creditors.
Facia, owned by Mr Stephen Hinchliffe and estimated to have debts of £30 million, went into receivership on Saturday after Israeli United Mizrahi Bank (UMB) owed an estimated £7 million by Facia, called in KPMG and Grant Thornton.
The Irish businessman, Mr John Carway, had been linked to a last minute effort to save the company.
Sears subsequently sought the appointment of Price Waterhouse as administrators to the three shoe shop chains it sold to Facia. Sears is owed £7 million by Facia and has £25 million worth of stock tied up in the three chains.
Most of the privately owned group, built up by Mr Hinchliffe since 1994, is now in receivership or administration, with the exception of the German shoe chain Bata which is owned privately by Mr Hinchliffe.
The move by UBM to appoint receivers was prompted by Sears which said on Friday that it would apply to have the three shoe firms it sold to Facia put into administration.
