Eason & Son
Eason & Son (or Eason's as it is more commonly known) is a group involved in the wholesale, distribution and retail of books, newspapers, magazines, stationery and cards on the island of Ireland (In both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland).
The chain of 34 retail and 16 franchised Eason stores exist throughout the island of Ireland. The company is headquartered in Dublin (with the Northern Ireland division headquartered in Belfast) and employs over 1,800 staff. The company, which is privately owned, had a profit of €9.7 million in 2003 on a turnover of €372 million. Recently, the company has moved into franchising, with a number of new retail units operating independently under the Eason banner. Most of these are located in shopping centres or smaller towns which do not already have an existing Eason shop. Conor Wheelan is Managing Director. The company's current slogan is "Whatever you're into, get into Eason", replacing the previous slogan "So many reasons to shop at Eason's".
List of divisions, ownership of other companies and acquisitions
- Eason Retail Division - headquartered in an integrated book and stationery warehouse in St Margaret's, Swords, County Dublin since mid-2007.
- Eason Wholesale Stationery Division, previously based in Crumlin, Dublin 12 but now moved to St Margaret's, distributes Stationery and associated products to retail outlets throughout Ireland. Eason is the official distributor in Ireland for Club Stationery.
- Eason Wholesale Book Division - also moved to St Margaret's, north County Dublin. This division sells books in bulk to many shops.
- Eason's Advertising Services Limited - a niche advertising agency, one of the oldest agencies in the country and a wholly owned subsidiary,[1] located in Dublin 1.[2] Sole Irish affiliate of The ComVort Group and the Bernard Hodes Global Network.
- Reads - These stores, acquired in 2005, are primarily discount stores selling stationery, books and greetings cards. The two original Reads stores were on Nassau Street in Dublin 2, and a branch on Patrick street in Cork city (now closed). A former Eason store on Botanic Avenue in Belfast was converted to become a Reads outlet in 2006 (this closed in Mar 2008). The Reads store in Nassau Street has recently (Feb 08) expanded into the premises next door (formerly Blarney Woollen Mills), to create a new discount book store alongside its existing premises. The former Fred Hannas bookshop at the corner of Nassau Street and Dawson Street was also acquired by the company in 1999 but closed in early 2008, and merged with the Reads branch nearby.
- Hughes & Hughes Airport - in early 2010 Hughes & Hughes entered administration, with Eason acquiring their 7 airport stores.[3]
- N.P.O. UK Ltd. (now all rebranded Eason) - These stores are operated under Eason and Son (N.I.) Ltd. NPO UK specialised in stationary, however after the Eason takeover, these stores stock the same range of products as all Eason stores.
- Eason Electronic - two South African Companies selling phone top-ups and pre-paid electricity cards.
- British Bookshops & Sussex Stationers outlets in south-east England - 52 retail book outlets. Now reduced to 39. In May 2009, Eason sold this company to Endless PLC. Endless intend to keep the "British Bookshops" name.
- Eason and Son (N.I.) Ltd - This division operates the chain of 15 stores in Northern Ireland (Including the ex-NPO stores).
- Eason News Distribution Division (now merged into the EM News) - was based in Dublin and outside Cork City Newsbrothers. Newsbrothers , a subsidiary company of Eason, was responsible for newspaper and magazine distribution in the Munster region.
See also
References
External links
Eason & Son: A History by L M Cullen. (438pp, 16 plates Dublin 1989.)