Save Jobs Nenagh Homesavers

Senior management at Homesavers identified a location at Unit 1 Martyrs Road Nenagh, Tipperary in January 2019. This site had been vacated in 2018 by former Owner Lidl as they moved to their new premises at McDonagh Street, Nenagh, Tipperary.

Proceedings began to bring our Homewares Retail Store to Nenagh, Co.Tipperary, to provide the community of Nenagh with variety, choice and value in their shopping experience. This is what we at Homesavers pride ourselves on.

A prior agreement with the Landlord of above address and Lidl existed that the vacated unit could not be used for food retail; however we understood that as a Homewares Retailer, there was no bar to a Homesavers store operating from the unit.

With knowledge of this agreement Homesavers engaged in deep consultation with the Landlord and invited him to satisfy himself of the nature and core target market of our business - Homewares - this process involved the Landlord visiting existing Homesavers Stores. At the conclusion of this process, it was deemed by the Landlord that Homesavers was a Homewares Retailer, stocking a minor quantity of food items. In many ways this is akin to Lidl - a Food Retailer which stocks minor homeware products. As a result of this outcome we moved forward with our plan to bring Homesavers to Nenagh.

The deal was signed on the 12th of March 2019 and Homesavers underwent a full fit out.

On the 5th of April 2019, legal correspondence was received by our Landlord (Bilo Property Holdings) from Lidl. This correspondence stated that the Homesavers unit was bound by a covenant that ‘restricts the use of the Property for “the use as a food retail and/or off-licence and or any illegal or immoral use or noisy, noxious or offensive trade including but not limited to sex shop, methadone clinic, cattlemart or abattoir’. The letter continued: ‘Homesavers, as part of their retail offering, offers for sale items such as confectionery goods, cereals, soft drinks etc.’ The letter concluded by asking our landlord to ensure that Homesavers do not offer for sale any food from the unit.

No such correspondence was received here at Homesavers until the day before our official opening on May 1st 2019. This letter eventually received from Lidl on the eve of our opening demanded that Homesavers not sell food items from its Nenagh unit and threatened that should Homesavers sell such items it would pursue Homesavers in the courts.

Two days later Lidl began injunction proceedings to prevent Homesavers from selling ‘food’ items (including confectionery and soft drinks) from the Nenagh store. Having agreed to not stock these items until the case is complete, it is now clear that the Nenagh store is not viable without the sale of this limited range of consumable products.

We at Homesavers are committed to the community of Nenagh, where 40 Jobs are secured at the site, and we believe that our limited consummable items have no impact on Lidl.

We fully intend to honour the employment of our 40 Nenagh staff members and continue to provide variety, choice and value for the community.

Please support the staff at our Homesavers site in Nenagh and follow “Save Nenagh Homesavers” on Facebook for updates.

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