No immediate threat to employment at Xtra-vision stores in Monaghan Town and Carrickmacross has ensued from the DVD rental store chain entering receivership this week.
The company said that all of their 152 stores across the island of Ireland, which employ a total of 1,023 people on either a full-time or part-time basis, would remain open until a buyer for them was found.
A downturn in rental income due to competition from both legitimate and illegal alternative sources of accessing films, added to the withdrawal of credit insurance, have been cited as the motivators for the company’s decision.
Xtra-vision have stressed that all gift cards and customer credit balances remain fully redeemable and are unaffected by the appointment of Luke Charleton and Colin Farquharson of Ernst and Young as joint receivers on Monday.
The Tallaght-headquartered business has a database of more than 400,000 customers.
The majority of its outlets are regarded as profitable, but it had become unable to discharge its debts as they fell due, owing to the withdrawal of trade credit by a number of key suppliers.
“While the company’s retail business continues to grow, its movie rental business has declined more rapidly than anticipated, most noticeably in areas with high speed broadband, which is linked to high levels of illegal downloading,” a statement from the …