The decision by Dunnes Stores to shutter its store in Gorey Shopping Centre is typical of the brinkmanship that is a hallmark tactic of the country's largest indigenous retailer during conflict.
The sudden closure of the store on Thursday night in the midst of an access dispute with Paul McCann and Stephen Tennant of Grant Thornton, the AIB-appointed receivers to the centre, leaves 100 staff in limbo.
The receivers want Dunnes to stop using a side door that is diverting shoppers away from the rest of the centre. On Thursday they injuncted the retailer, which then promptly shut the store.
Dunnes did not respond to a request for comment, while the receivers declined to comment.
Margaret Heffernan, the combative chief executive of Dunnes, has become a veteran of bitter disputes with landlords in recent years. In many of the rows, the firm has held out until the matter has been resolved by a court.
Sale agreed
In the Gorey case, Heffernan may be hoping to exploit the fact that a sale of the centre has just been agreed with US investment fund Davidson Kempner, as part of a €120 million portfolio of six regional centres.
A legal wrangle and a shuttered anchor tenant isn’t something a major investor likes to see when buying an asset. Heffernan may have calculated that shutting the store would put pressure on the receivers to back down so as not to jeopardise the sale.
It is understood, however, that contracts have already been exchanged. It is also likely that Dunnes’ opponents will be scouring the store’s lease to see whether or not it is in breach of its commitments by remaining closed.
In the meantime, Dunnes has plenty of other disputes to keep it busy.
Supreme Court challenge
Earlier this week, it lost a Supreme Court challenge over a judgment awarded against it last year for €1.13 million. It had withheld rent to the new owner of two shopping centres in Galway on a technicality relating to the signing over of the leases.
It also has a history of landlord disputes with Nama-backed developers. Heffernan is known to have a particularly fractious relationship with the agency.
Its most high-profile tussle with Nama came in 2012 when Holtglen, the Nama client behind the Ferrybank shopping centre in Kilkenny, went to court to get Dunnes wound up after it failed to comply with a High Court order to pay €21 million.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly remarked that Dunnes had "challenged the authority of the court" by not paying up. Dunnes eventually handed the money over to Holtglen before a closure order was issued.
Dunnes has also been involved in disputes with the Nama-backed owners of the Square in Tallaght, as well as the developers of Point Village in Dublin.
Unfortunately for the staff at Gorey, they are caught in the crossfire.
Heffernan is unlikely to back down quickly, so the receivers and AIB could try to force the store to reopen, but only if they can find grounds to do so.
The extent of Dunnes’ own lease commitments will be key to resolving the impasse.
