Some 12 former concession holders of the now closed Clerys department store in Dublin are considering an application to the High Court next week to block the appointment of KPMG as liquidators to OCS Operations Ltd, the entity that ran the shop.

Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson of KPMG were appointed as provisional liquidators of OCS Operations on June 12th, a day that saw the company change ownership twice and the store cease trading. It is understood that the concession holders will cite a possible conflict of interest with KPMG.

The firm is auditor to a number of companies associated with Deirdre Foley's D2 Private, which is a member of the Natrium Ltd joint venture that acquired OCS Operations and related companies on June 12th.

Petition

On the same day, Natrium transferred ownership of OCS Operations to

Jim Brydie

, a UK insolvency specialist, for €1. Mr Brydie then petitioned the court to have KPMG appointed as provisional liquidators. That appointment is due to be confirmed on Monday.

The Irish Times has learned that solicitor Michael Lavelle, acting for the 12 concession holders, has written to law firm McCann Fitzgerald, which is representing the liquidators, to seek clarifications of this potential conflict of interest.

KPMG

The concession holders will then decide if they will proceed with an attempt to block the appointment of KPMG. It is understood that Siptu has decided not to try and block the appointment.

The 12 concession holders, who met in Dublin yesterday, claim they are owed €750,000 between them for sales dating from the beginning of May. There were 50 concession holders in total in Clerys, who claim they are owed more than €2 million between them.

The liquidators are believed to estimate that the concession holders are owed between €1.1 million and €1.4 million.

This money was supposed to be held in trust for the concession holders. It is understood that the concessionaires have been informed by the liquidators that they have €620,000 in cash available to them.

They do not have the funds that were held in trust for the concession holders. The liquidators are expected to seek direction from the court as to how the cash they hold should be distributed among the concessionaires.

Clarity

Mr Lavelle has also written to the directors of Gordon Brothers on two separate occasions to seek clarity on the trust funds. However, he was told on both occasions to direct the queries to the liquidators.

Keith Rogers of Ecco shoes, which had operated as a concessionaire in Clerys for 14 years, said his company is owed €68,000 by Clerys.

“We’ll have reduced margins for some time to come,” he said, adding that the €93,000 worth of stock from Clerys would have to be sold at reduced margins. Mr Rogers supports any move that will return funds to the Clerys concession holders.

Benetton

Catherine McDonagh, district manager Ireland for Benetton, said the Italian group is owed about €100,000 for past sales. The company paid a commission of 21 per cent of revenues to Clerys to operate its concession.

“We lost €1.3 million in turnover overnight,” she said, adding that Benetton had used the Clerys concession to open a new concept store that it could replicate in other countries. “It was a template,” she added.

Benetton has 25 stores around the country, including nine that are company owned. Of its 11 employees in Clerys, just three were retained by the group and allocated to other parts of the group in Ireland.