United store still in the red

ONE MORE THING: MANCHESTER UNITED'S short-lived foray into the Irish retail sector continues to cost it money a decade after it closed its doors.

United opened an, ahem, superstore in Dublin in October 2000 on the corner of D’Olier and Westmoreland streets. It shut in January 2002 due to poor sales.

Latest accounts for Manchester United Commercial Enterprises (Ireland) Ltd show it made a loss of €127,130 in the year to the end of June 30th, 2011. The loss in 2010 was €2.5 million.

“In 2010, the onerous lease provision was revised and assumes that no permanent income will be generated through to 2015 when the company has the right to exercise a break clause and terminate the lease,” the directors’ report states.

The accounts show lease costs of €54,288 and income, presumably from a sub-let, of €20,884.

Interest payable of €103,255 put the company further into the red.

The total deficit in shareholders’ funds was €8.1 million at the year-end. It also owes €5.5 million to other groups in the Manchester United family.

The US-based Glazer family, who control the club, must be desperate to blow the final whistle on this venture.