Owner of Field’s jewellers sold two British stores for near €6m as pandemic bit

The Irish company that owns Field’s jewellers here and the Fraser Hart chain in the UK has sold two British stores for £4.9 million (€5.9m) to the Beaverbrook chain, according to its most recent accounts.

Anthony Nicholas, the Dublin holding company for Field's and Fraser Hart, says it will use the proceeds to pay down debt and also to free up resources to invest in its digital operations. The company is controlled by the Obernik family, which has long been involved in the Irish jewellery business, with other shareholders including the group's chief executive Noel Coyle.

The group operates 13 Field’s stores in Ireland after closing its Jervis Street outlet in Dublin last year, while it now has about 28 Fraser Hart stores in Britain after selling several outlets in recent years as part of its debt-reduction drive. It now has bank debt of less than £4 million.

It sold the two stores to Beaverbrook in the 12-month financial period that ran to June 27th last year. In the prior year it sold four of its Fraser Hart stores for about £31 million to the Watches of Switzerland chain.

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Anthony Nicholas says its latest two store sales to Beaverbrook are the “final step” in the series of disposals.

The accounts filed in recent weeks show the massive impact on its operations of the pandemic lockdowns here and in Britain. Sales at the group, which reports all of its activities in sterling, fell by almost 40 per cent to about £47.3 million in the 12 months to the end of last June.

It managed to staunch its losses, however. It recorded an operating profit of £1.4 million last year, compared to an operating loss of £2.8 million the prior year, which would have included the first lockdowns when the pandemic first hit in spring of 2020.

Its net profit last year was £2.1 million after it received government pandemic supports of £4.3 million and the proceeds of the sales of the two stores to Beaverbrook. This compared to a net profit of £8.1 million the prior year, when its finances were boosted by the Watches of Switzerland deal.

Overall the group appears to be in a healthy financial position with retained profits of almost £30 million and strong cash balances. The group says its stores in Ireland and Britain have recovered well and are “trading consistently” since restrictions were lifted. It employed about 428 staff last year.

The group, which traces its history in the Irish market to the 1940s, entered the British market with the purchase of Fraser Hart in 2007. Its directors previously included the former managing director of Davy stockbrokers Kyran McLaughlin, who stepped down in 2020.