Superquinn have announced the closure of their supermarket on Naas Main Street. (see Irish Times article http://bit.ly/dNGaZ5). This is interesting on a lot of levels.
Firstly, the retail chain has gone seriously awry since Senator Feargal Quinn sold the then family business in 2005 for around n450 million to Select Retail Holdings. Their business model was to ignore the healthy cash business, and cash-in on the [then] valuable sites, for property speculation. As part of their strategy (as reported) Superquinn offloaded six of its properties in 2007, including that at Naas, in a sale-and-leaseback deal that netted its owners €142.5 million from Friends First F&C. That they only leased back for 3 years is extaordinary. However, it also points to serious issues behind the scenes, that Primark (now landlord) would rather take Superquinn to the High Court to get them out, rather than maintain a good cash tenant.
However, the big issue here is Retail Planning Policy, and what it has done to the mainstreet. It is only two months after the Taoiseach opened a new out-of-town Tesco hypermarket on the Monread Road. So 260 jobs created out-of-town, and 100 already lost on main street, while a shopping centre just off main street has been halted mid-construction.
Naas is potentially a fine town, with what should be a good public open space at its core (instead of a car park). It should have benefitted from population growth and investment in boom years. Instead this has gone into the suburban housing estates, and retail parks that circle the town. Retail Planning Policy (at government and regional level) is at the heart of this problem. While there is no evidence of good governance at the local level to improve the towns product and performance, the Retail Parks are part of the Retail Strategy for the county! There has been no attempt by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government to quantify or analyse the impact of their policy on town centres, and yet they continue to prepare draft guidelines that were referred to as a limited review. If Planning Policy proactively supports the unsustainable segregation of retail use from the town core, what hope for the main street?
