THE NATIONAL Consumer Agency has called on Habitat UK to ensure that customers of its Irish franchise do not lose out financially following its sudden closure last week.

In a letter sent to the company yesterday, the consumer agency urged it to fulfil all orders still with the Irish franchise or return payments. Deputy director John Shine also called on the company to honour gift vouchers.

More customers spoke of their concern yesterday about having paid for goods that have not arrived. Habitat, which was run by the firm Conai Designs, closed its Dublin and Galway stores without warning last Friday. One customer said he had paid €8,000 for two sofas but had heard nothing about their delivery, while other customers said they held hundreds of euro in vouchers that now appeared to be useless.

Conai Design is being put into liquidation and notices advertising a creditors' meeting will be placed in national newspapers on Friday. This means customers with incomplete orders are unsecured creditors with few legal rights.

However, in his letter to Habitat UK chief executive Jens Nordahl, Mr Shine said customers in Ireland would not have been aware of the ownership structure of the Irish operation and would have assumed that they were dealing with a store in the Habitat group.

"Accordingly, the agency expects that Habitat UK will meet its commitments to Irish customers and ensure that they do not suffer financial loss due to the trading difficulties of the Irish stores." He said concern among Habitat customers in Ireland was growing and the National Consumer Agency had received a large number of calls on the issue.

"It is disappointing that Habitat UK has not yet been in a position to provide clarity to Irish customers. We look forward to a clear commitment from Habitat UK that customers will be treated fairly and will not lose out and trust that this will be provided as a matter of urgency."