{"id":596411,"date":"2026-08-17T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596411\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:14:09","slug":"harvey-nichols-dundrum-will-not-accept-gift-cards-bought-before-liquidators-appointment-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596411\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey Nichols Dundrum will not accept gift cards bought before liquidators\u2019 appointment \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The provisional liquidators of the Irish company behind the Harvey Nichols store in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dundrum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dundrum\/\">Dundrum<\/a> have said they are not currently able to redeem gift cards or fulfil online sales issued by the retailer before they were appointed on August 13th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">John Boland and Nicholas O\u2019Dwyer of Grant Thornton were appointed as joint provisional liquidators  last week after the High Court heard  the Irish business was insolvent with net liabilities of \u20ac28.2 million by the end of the 2026 financial year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This followed the sale of its UK parent to Mike Ashley\u2019s Frasers group through what is known as a prepack administration process in the UK. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Frasers supplied support for the Dundrum store to reopen on Saturday and to continue trading for now, while the liquidators seek to sell the business. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">However, in a notice posted on the Irish store\u2019s website, Harvey Nichols said it was \u201ccurrently unavailable online\u201d and that any \u201corders placed and gift cards purchased prior to August 13th, 2026, fall under the ownership structure preceding this transition\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cRefunds relating to these orders cannot be processed by Harvey Nichols directly; customers with an outstanding refund from this period are asked to contact, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2026\/08\/17\/harvey-nichols-dundrum-will-not-accept-gift-cards-bought-before-liquidators-appointment\/mailto:HNCreditors@fticonsulting.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HNCustomers@fticonsulting.com<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a statement to The Irish Times in relation to gift cards and online orders, the liquidators said they had \u201centered into an arrangement\u201d that enabled the Dundrum store to open again for trading from August 15th. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe arrangement allows the business to continue trading and receive stock while the JPLs [joint provisional liquidators] assess the options available to the company,\u201d they added. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2026\/08\/14\/a-case-of-dunkirk-but-not-dundrum-for-mike-ashley-and-harvey-nichols\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Harvey Nichols Dundrum was kept on life support for 20 years. But could it still have a future?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cContinued trading helps preserve value in the business, maintain employment and provides an opportunity to determine whether a sale or other transaction can be achieved in the interests of the company stakeholders. At this time, there can be no certainty as to the outcome of that process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The liquidators said they were \u201ccontinuing to assess the position in relation to gift cards and advise that they cannot currently be accepted in store\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cCustomers who hold gift cards are advised to retain them while that review is ongoing. A further update will be provided once the position has been determined. The situation regarding online orders is also still under review.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In its statement to the London Stock Exchange last week on the Harvey Nichols deal, Frasers said \u201ccertain assets located at the Dublin store including stock and store fixtures have been acquired as part of the transaction. Discussions in relation to the business are ongoing and Frasers continues to support the trading operations of the Dublin store.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Dundrum store was closed last Friday but reopened on Saturday. It has 33 staff and pays annual rent of just more than \u20ac1 million for the Dundrum outlet, which first opened in 2005.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">One employee working at the outlet on Monday told The Irish Times that although staff \u201cdid know the store was up for sale\u201d, learning that it was deemed insolvent and unable to pay its debts \u201cwas a surprise\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There appeared to be an equal number of staff and customers in the store around lunchtime on Monday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s very sad,\u201d one shopper said, wondering about the future employment of the workers inside. \u201cBut the issue is there\u2019s never anyone in there,\u201d she said. \u201cI hardly ever come here to use it [\u2026] it\u2019s so off the beaten track.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The provisional liquidators of the Irish company behind the Harvey Nichols store in Dundrum have said they are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,84880,61,60],"class_list":["post-596411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-dundrum-town-centre","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}