Having survived Brexit, Covid and competition from Amazon, Liam Hanly has a new plan to grow profits
Liam Hanley, Eason 's managing director: 'We’re pretty competitive on price, particularly on Irish titles.' Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Timesmanaging director Liam Hanly to get his game face on. For most of the year, Irish books and stationery retailer Eason normally does about €1.2 million-€1.3 million per week in revenue at its network of shops around the Republic.
“We expect the book to hit number one this week based on a very strong week of sales,” Hanly says. “We’re in the middle of the big publishing schedule for Christmas. It would have been led off by Sally Rooney a few weeks ago and now Johnny. I’d expect it to be number one in the marketplace this week and one of the top books for Christmas.”
The revenue figure included some €15.8 million in income from Dubray . In terms of Eason’s retail business, like-for-like sales rose 3 per cent while new stores contributed €11.2 million in income. A strategic review is under way to look at how it can make the O’Connell Street store, with its three trading floors, “relevant” for the future. Over the past 12 months it has culled its range of magazines, from more than 2,000 titles, by about 40 per cent. “You wouldn’t notice the difference in the revenues,” he says. “It was just creating an awful lot of labour in the store.”
Eason plans to pay the €4 million dividend in December, with a share buyback scheme to be launched next March or April, delivering up to €10 million. This will comprise two tranches – about €6 million next spring and the balance in late 2025 or early 2026.A new three-year strategic plan for the group has been signed off by the board, with the aim of increasing Eason’s Ebitda to €11 million-plus a year, which would represent growth of about 40 per cent.
Hanly’s immediate focus now is the new strategy plan. “That will bring sales beyond €140 million and Ebitda to about €11.5 million,” he says. “It will be achieved through Eason store and category growth, Dubray growth and expansion, online growth as well as favourable market dynamics including shopping centre growth, which is a lower cost mode, book market volume growth and positive demographic trends.
“I’d be more fiction and history, used to be more fantasy-type stuff, now more crime fiction. John Connolly I would like, the Charlie Parker series, and Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian guy. And I’d read the odd sports book. One of the best I’ve read would probably be the Andre Agassi book. It’s an eclectic mix.”
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