Menarys to close two stores in Tyrone

TWO Menarys stores in Tyrone are closing down in the New Year due to the impact of the coronavirus lockdowns over the past nine months.

Tempest Omagh in The Showgrounds and Tempest Cookstown on Orritor Road – which are both owned by Menarys – will close resulting in the loss of dozens of jobs.

A third Tempest outlet in Craigavon will also close down.

The well-known retailer, which operates 20 stores across the country, recently confirmed that it would be forced to close the three branches due to the pandemic.

The business, which has been in operation for 98 years, said its Menarys stores in Strabane and Dungannon will remain open.

The company’s managing director Stephen McCammon told BBC Radio Ulster that only 50 per-cent of its business reopened on Friday after the ‘circuit breaker’.

“It’s been a very sad year and we’ve recently just entered consultation with staff in three branches which will regrettably have to close in the New Year because of Covid,” he said.

“There will be quite a number of job losses as a result of that.

“We made this very clear to the (Stormont) Executive whenever we were excluded from the multiple retail grant earlier on in the pandemic that, that would come at the cost of jobs.

“These two weeks are very significant to us. Based on performance we will probably take something like 20 per-cent, that’s a decline of 80 per-cent, of what we would normally take.”

He added, “The critical thing for now is getting through December with as much trade as we can manage.”