Veritas, the religious books and gifts retail company of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, is to close three of its outlets as part of a rationalisation process to invest in online sales. These outlets are located in Sligo, Monaghan and Naas and the closures will take place by the end of January 2019. Veritas currently has nine retail outlets in Ireland.
Mr Aidan Chester, Director of Veritas, said, “Veritas has made the difficult decision to close three outlets which have found trading difficult in recent years. I have been discussing the closures with the four full-time and nine part-time employees concerned. Redundancies at any time are difficult for all involved, but especially so in the lead up to Christmas. While the closures are regrettable, Veritas has done its best to keep job losses to a minimum and is working to relocate staff where possible.
“The decision to close these outlets is based on our company’s strategic planning in response to the changing shopping behaviours of our customers. Our plan includes continuing investment in our online business which has performed strongly, increasing by 52% this year. For the future, Veritas will continue to focus on opportunities to increase our online sales including click and collect and mobile enabled shopping alongside new opportunities in our remaining store network.”
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For media contact: Catholic Communications Office Maynooth: Martin Long +353 (0) 86 172 7678 and Katie Crosby +353 (0) 86 862 3298