THE RELIGIOUS BOOK and gifts company Veritas is set to close three of its stores before the end of January, with 13 employees affected. 

The company – which is part of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference – made the announcement today as part of a “rationalisation process to invest in online sales”.

The affected stores are located in Sligo, Monaghan and Naas, and they are set to be closed by the end of January of next year. Veritas currently has nine retail stores open in Ireland. 

“Veritas has made the difficult decision to close three outlets which have found trading difficult in recent years.  I have been discussing the closures with the four full-time and nine part-time employees concerned,” said Aidan Chester, director of Veritas.

Redundancies at any time are difficult for all involved, but especially so in the lead up to Christmas.  While the closures are regrettable, Veritas has done its best to keep job losses to a minimum and is working to relocate staff where possible.

A spokesperson for Veritas told TheJournal.ie that the number of jobs to be lost is “yet to be determined”.

“At this time Veritas is looking at all options with the affected staff including possibly redeploying them elsewhere in the business. If this isn’t suitable for staff then redundancy will be offered,” a spokesperson said.

It is not thought that the staff have union representation, and the Veritas spokesperson said that the company was “speaking directly with the affected staff and every effort will be made to assist them during this difficult time”.

Chester said that the decision to close the outlets was based on the company’s “strategic planning in response to the changing shopping behaviours of our customers”.

“Our plan includes continuing investment in our online business which has performed strongly, increasing by 52% this year,” he said. 

For the future, Veritas will continue to focus on opportunities to increase our online sales including click and collect and mobile enabled shopping alongside new opportunities in our remaining store network.

TheJounal.ie has contacted Veritas for confirmation on how many jobs will be lost as a result of the closure.