WHILE RETAILERS in Dublin city centre prepare to break with tradition and open on St Stephen’s Day, Dundrum Town Centre will remain largely shuttered on December 26th.

“Next will be opening on St Stephen’s Day but, at the moment, it’s the only store and the centre won’t be opening,” centre director Don Nugent told me this week.

“I think the view of a lot of the retailers is that all it does is spread the business, and at a cost. We’ll review the decision in January but we’ve no plans to do it this year.”

Movies@Dundrum will also be closed on the day but Nugent said the centre’s two pubs will open.

Nugent said footfall at Dundrum was up about 7 per cent this year but the average spend had declined and he expected a tough six months ahead.

“Sales overall will be down on a like-for-like basis [in 2009] but [when new store openings are taken into account] we’re holding up reasonably well on the €700 million mark we hit last year.”