Retailing | 3:38 March 01, 2010 | Print this story

Irish bookseller Hughes and Hughes into receivership

Hughes and Hughes, which at one stage had 24 bookstores in Ireland the UK, has gone into receivership citing decreased consumer demand, online rivals, and a fall in the numbers of consumers using its airport outlets.

The Bookseller reported that the chain has closed its high street shops although those at airports remain open for now. The trade magazine quoted a statement from the directors and management of Hughes and Hughes that cited “the revolutionary wave of internet competition” and said that, like other retailers, the chain had been “operating in an environment of collapsing consumer demand due to the weakness of the economy and the exchange rate differential with sterling”.