Ann Summers shop in Limerick makes €1m

They say sex sells and that could be true in the case of a Limerick shop let on a long lease to a retailer specialising in adult toys and kinky lingerie which has just been sold for a strong price that has secured the new owner a net initial return of 15.3 per cent.

Agent Knight Frank has secured €1 million for 36 Cruises Street in Limerick which is occupied by the Ann Summers chain on a 25-year lease from May 1995 at a passing rent of €160,000.

The lease, held on a full repairing and insuring basis, is subject to upwards-only rent reviews and is also guaranteed by the UK parent group of Ann Summers.

The shop is centrally located on the pedestrianised Cruises Street – one of the city’s best located retail thoroughfares.

It is off O’Connell Street and generates some of the highest levels of footfall in the city.

Nearby occupiers include Specsavers, Thornton's, Mothercare, Costa Coffee, McDonald's, O2, Three, Eason, River Island, Currys, Monsoon, Boots, Brown Thomas, Dunnes Stores, Debenhams and Penneys.

No 36 Cruises Street is a purpose-built, two-storey, mid-terrace, brick-clad retail unit with about 161sq m (1,733sq ft) of space.

It has large display windows at ground level which is entirely given over to retail use.

There is ancillary office and storage at first-floor level and rear service access from a laneway.

International presence

UK multinational Ann Summers has over 140 high street stores in the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Spain. It has three stores in Ireland under two Irish entities,

Ann Summers Ireland

(Retail) Limited and Ann Summers (Ireland) Limited.

Accounts in 2013 for the UK operation, which includes the results of Ann Summers Ireland Ltd, show pretax profits of £2.39 million on revenues of £114.9 million.

The firm had shareholder funds of £50 million that included £16.5 million in cash.