School book supplier pledges end to backlog

Parents awaiting book orders from online retailer Schoolbooks

Parents awaiting book orders from online retailer Schoolbooks.ie will have the orders filled by Friday, the company said today.

The company apologised for the delay, which it said was caused by a technical issue at its warehouse. and said it had brought in extra staff to help clear the backlog.

"In addition to our regular 50 strong team, we have brought in 30 extra staff and are now working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to clear the backlog," managing director John Cunningham said. "No families will be left without schoolbooks for the start of the school term."

The company said it had already proicessed 50,000 orders, and had a backlog of 5,000.

"Half of these will be dispatched by Tuesday and we will have the remaining orders issued to customers by the end of the week," Mr Cunningham said.

Affected customers have been emailed. Mr Cunningham said he was aware that communication with customers over the past numbers of weeks had been "far from satisfactory", but said the focus has been on clearing the backlog.