THERE ARE no signs of hairshirts in Dundrum where Joe O'Reilly's town centre continues to expand its footprint, recession or not.
Twelve store openings are planned before the end of this year, including upmarket UK toy store Hamleys, which will open with much fanfare next Thursday.
Mayo-backed retailer Elverys will open the country's biggest sports store in December, while Hughes Hughes will pitch its tent in competition with Eason.
Restaurateur Roly Saul plans to launch a new eatery while venerable Donegal clothing group Magee will open its first retail shop in Dublin.
Centre director Don Nugent says business remains brisk, in spite of the downturn. "In terms of footfall, we have managed to maintain growth levels of the order of 5 to 6 per cent," he said.
This will take the number of shoppers passing through the doors beyond the 17-million mark.
Dundrum's aggregate sales last year were just more than €700 million.
"On a like-for-like basis, we expect to hold that figure and obviously we have the new brands coming in to add to that," says Nugent. "We're expecting a good Christmas. We're actively marketing the centre in areas outside our catchment and I'm fairly confident that we'll hit 17 million visitors this year."
Dundrum is proving a hit with cinema-goers, judging by accounts filed by Movies@Dundrum Ltd, a joint venture between the O'Gorman and Spurling families.
The cinema group booked a 50 per cent rise in gross profit, which jumped to €7.4 million in the year to the end of August 2007.
When staff and administration costs, interest charges and tax payments are stripped out, the group posted an after-tax profit of €1.3 million, a more than tenfold rise on 2006. That wiped out its €116,981 in accumulated losses and enabled it to shave its net debt by €1 million to €5.1 million.
