MANAGEMENT AT Brown Thomas in Dublin had hoped for a flood of shoppers to pour through the shop’s Grafton Street doors at the start of its winter sale yesterday morning. But instead, they were confronted by a flood of an entirely different and more unwelcome sort.
The retailer was forced to postpone the start of its winter sale at its flagship store when much of the shop flooded after a water-sprinkler system malfunctioned and swamped almost 25 per cent of the shop.
The water caused substantial structural damage across three floors and left the retailer with no choice but to abandon the opening of its much-anticipated sale scheduled for 9am.
Management were first alerted to a serious problem early yesterday morning. “When your phone goes off before 6am, you know it is not good news,” managing director Stephen Sealey told The Irish Times.
He said the faulty sprinkler, located at the top of the building, towards the rear of the store, had sent water running through the building “from top to bottom”.
He estimated it had “taken out” about 25 per cent of the shop floor. “It has presented us with a real challenge, there is no doubt about that. But we have had tremendous support from our staff and our suppliers.” He said the store would be open from 9am today. Although it “might not look as pretty as we would like by then, the doors will be open”.
Mr Sealey added there had not been as much damage to stock on the shop floor as might have been anticipated, because much of the water had run down empty stairwells located towards the rear of the shop.
He said much of the shop would be completely unaffected by the flood damage and said that areas containing new season stock had been untouched by the water.
– CONOR POPE