‘It will be stopped’
Liquidators KPMG will be met with strong resistance if they attempt to remove stock from any of Cork’s former Debenhams sites.
That’s according to defiant former Debenhams worker Valerie Conlon who led a rally outside Cork’s KPMG offices on the South Mall on Tuesday.
The rally was partially in response to KPMG’s attempts to retrieve stock at various sites around the country over the last few days.
Ms Conlon told the Cork Independent: “Stock packers are going around the country to a lot of the stores. We haven't had any engagement from KPMG since our last meeting months ago.”
She added: “They put out an advertisement for packers, they went into Blanchardstown this morning (Tuesday) and Blackrock in Dublin.”
Ms Conlon said that she expects KPMG to attempt to take stock from the St Patrick’s Street site in the coming days, but insists that they will “come away with nothing”.
Former staff understand that packers entered the Debenhams store in Mahon Point yesterday, although there was no official confirmation of this.
“It will be stopped, like it has been the last few times. Nothing has left our store, bar some money,” said Ms Conlon.
“One of the girls is after buying a winter jacket already in preparation for the cold weather. The Government is saying they're feeling sorry for us and giving us all their tea and sympathy, but they have to act on it now. They can't leave us out here through the winter,” Ms Conlon said.
Addressing the Government directly, Ms Conlon’s message was very clear.
“Help us. Talk to KPMG and talk to Mandate and help us. They’re not doing anything at the moment. We’ve had Micheál Martin, Minister Michael McGrath and Simon Coveney down here in Cork, and they’re not helping us.”
Fellow worker and picketer Gemma Jones, who had been with the company for 16 years, told the Cork Independent that staff are proud and “going nowhere”.
“You know what, we've stuck it out this long now, we're not going anywhere, anytime soon,” said Ms Jones.
Louise Murphy, who worked for Roches Stores on St Patrick’s Street and then Debenhams who took over the premises in 2006, said that she never thought something like this would happen.
“There were a lot of rumours, but we never thought it would come to this. When you get the reaction from the people on the street, that keeps you going. It makes us stronger,” said Ms Murphy.
“It makes us want to carry on, because some days it’s very hard,” she added.
Ms Murphy said that she believes Debenhams had planned to terminate its Irish branches next year, but that Covid-19 sped up procedures.
“They told us they were afraid of looting. We all reckon the closure was planned for next year, and that it would have happened anyway, but then Covid-19 just fell into their lap.”
No response from KPMG or Debenhams was received at the time of going to print.
Today, Thursday Debenhams workers will assemble at the old Vita Cortex factory at the Kinsale Road at 10.30am and walk to Taoiseach Micheál Martin's constituency office on Evergreen Street in Turner's Cross, to deliver a letter of protest at the Government's failure to act to resolve the Debenhams dispute on a just basis.