Eason & Son

Infobox_Company
company_name = Eason and Son Limited
company_| company_type = Private
foundation = 1886
location = flagicon|IRL Dublin, Ireland
flagicon|UK Belfast, United Kingdom
industry = Retail Wholesale
IT Solutions
Advertising
products = Books
Stationery
Newspaper
Cards and gifts
Toys
profit = €9.7m (2003) homepage = [http://www.easons.com]

Eason & Son (or Eason's as it is more commonly known) is a group involved in the wholesale, distribution and retail of newspapers, magazines, books, stationery and cards in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The chain of 52 retail and 16 franchisedFact|date=February 2007 Eason stores exist throughout the island of Ireland... The company is headquartered in Dublin (with the Northern Ireland division headquartered in Belfast) and employs over 1,800 staff. The company, which is privately owned, had a profit of €9.7m in 2003 on a turnover of €372m. Recently, the company has moved into franchising, with a number of new retail units operating independently under the Eason banner. Most of these are located in shopping centres or smaller towns which do not already have an existing Eason shop. Basil McAllister is Managing Director. Michael Ryder is Chairman.

List of divisions, ownership of other companies and acquisitions

*Eason Retail Division - headquartered in an integrated book, magazine and stationery warehouse in St Margaret's, Swords, County Dublin since mid-2007.

*Eason Wholesale Stationery Division, previously based in Crumlin, Dublin 12 but now moved to St Margaret's, distributes Stationery and associated products to retail outlets throughout the 32 counties. Eason is the official distributor in Ireland for Club Stationery.

*Eason Wholesale Book Division - also moved to St Margaret's, north County Dublin. This division sells books in bulk to many shops.

*Eason's Advertising Services Limited - a niche advertising agency, one of the oldest agencies in the country and a wholly-owned subsidiary ( [http://www.easonadvert.ie] ). Located in Dublin 1. [http://maps.google.com/?q=66+Middle+Abbey+St,+Dublin,+Ireland&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr] . Sole Irish affiliate of The ComVort Group and the Bernard Hodes Global Network.

* http://www.comvort.com

*Reads - These stores, acquired in 2005, are primarily discount stores selling stationery, books and greetings cards. The two original Reads stores were on Nassau Street in Dublin 2, and a branch on Patrick street in Cork city (now closed). A former Eason store on Botanic Avenue in Belfast was converted to become a Reads outlet in 2006 (this closed in Mar 2008). The Reads store in Nassau Street has recently (Feb 08) expanded into the premises next door (formerly Blarney Woollen Mills), to create a new discount book store alongside its existing premises.

*N.P.O. UK Ltd. (now all rebranded Eason) - These stores are operated under Eason and Son (N.I.) Ltd. and specialise in stationery.

*Eason Electronic - two South African Companies selling phone top-ups and pre-paid electricity cards.

*British Bookshops & Sussex Stationers outlets in south-east England - 52 retail book outlets

*Eason and Son (N.I.) Ltd - This division operates both the Northern Ireland wholesale distribution arm and the Northern Ireland retail arm, (28 branches - 41% of the company's total stores in the smallest area). This is partly due to the takeover of the company "N.P.O. UK Ltd" which specialised in stationery. (n.b. Eason & Son Ltd. owns two companies with this name - one registered in Northern Ireland and one registered in the Republic of Ireland).

*EM News Distribution - Eason has merged its newspaper and magazine wholesale distribution businesses into a joint venture with John Menzies which is called EM News Distribution. [cite news|first= Ian|last= Kehoe|title= Eason and Menzies sign joint distribution deal|work= Sunday Business Post|publisher= Financial Times Information|date= 2007-01-14|accessdate= 2007-02-27] EM News Distribution competes with Wholesale Newspaper Services and NewsSpeed. EM News delivers newspapers and magazines to Eason stores as well as other non-Eason stores. Popular newspapers that EM News distributes include "The Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph" and others.

*Eason News Distribution Division (now defunct) - based in Dublin, and outside Cork City Newsbrothers. Newsbrothers , a subsidiary company of Eason, is responsible for newspaper and magazine distribution in the Munster region. Also, a small news warehouse facility is located at Mervue in Galway city.

ee also

*List of Irish companies

References

External links

* [http://www.easonadvert.ie Eason Advertising]

Eason & Son: A History by L M Cullen. (438pp, 16 plates Dublin 1989.)