High Court appoints examiner to Cork retailer Cummins Sports

An examiner has been appointed by the High Court to longstanding Cork retailer Cummins Sports.

Ms Justice Nessa Cahill in confirming the examinership said a critical factor was in relation to employees of the company and 48 out of 74 jobs are expected to be saved in the process.

At its peak, Cummins Sports, which supplies sporting goods had as many as 10 shops, about 110 employees and a turnover of €12million in 2007, according to court documents.

Founded more than 50 years ago in 1971, Cummins Sports has remained closely linked to its GAA heritage, producing its own sliotars which have been used in All-Ireland Hurling Championship Finals since 1976.

Ms Justice Cahill at the Fourt Courts on Wednesday also appointed an examiner to Cummins Sports sister company Sliotar Sports Ltd which has the same registered offices at Waterfront Business Park, Little Island, Co Cork and operates out of the Douglas shopping centre store.

The judge noted that the report by the interim examiner John Russell concluded that Cummins Sports has a reasonable prospect of survival as a going concern.

Significant enterprise

Counsel for the petitioning companies, Declan Murphy BL, instructed by Tom O’Byrne solicitor told the court that Cummins Sports was a significant enterprise that at one time had 10 stores and had close links to Cork GAA. He said there are four stores operating at Douglas Court, Blackpool Shopping Centre, Midleton and Fermoy.

In the petition document before the court, Cummins Sports said store in Princes St closed in October 2024 and the North Main St store in December last year. The store at Bandon Shopping Centre closed in October last year and Ballincollig in February.

It said it had experienced in recent weeks “significant pressure from the landlords of the four closed stores” and had tried to negotiate settlements but had so far been unsuccessful except in the case of the Ballincollig store.

According to the petition the company has struggled financially in recent years and “with increasing difficulty it has been weathering a storm over rented premises held under Celtic Tiger leases” , increased overheads and input costs, incursion into the market from international competitors and losses of distributorship and sponsorship rights.

It also referred to a loss of market share to online trade and the covid pandemic. 

Challenges

Notwithstanding these challenges it said the directors of Cummins Sports and Sliotar Sports are firmly of the view the core business is sound.

It also cited an increasing move from consumers to online sales and competition from large overseas competitors entering the Irish market. It said since the 1970s the mainstay of the company’s business related to GAA gear and equipment and it was the main supplier and distributor of Cork GAA gear and equipment. It said this changed in 2022 and it swerved to exacerbate the challenges faced by the company.

Extensive cost cutting measures have been undertaken to includes closures of stores, redundancies and reductions in directors salaries, staff hours, marketing budget and travel as well as targeted operational costs savings.

The matter will come back before the High Court on April 14 when the judge will be updated on the status of the examinership in relation to both companies.