Click.ie launches significant expansion plan
Irish IT retailer Click.ie has launched an expansion plan and expects to have a presence in all 26 counties within three years.
The company, which sells online as well as through a network of shops, is planning on opening the business up to franchisees, in addition to opening more of its own stores. Maurice Muldoon, chief executive and founder, said that the company had just opened its ninth store at the Dundrum Town Centre, and was planning on growing that number to between 12 and 15 in the coming years. Muldoon said he wanted to supplement this by creating a network of up to 14 franchisees.
Muldoon said that he would be targeting existing IT retailers as potential franchisees who may want to avail of the opportunity for more marketing and brand recognition.
‘‘We’ve a tendency in this business to open up in back streets and concentrate on repairs. Many IT retailers have a very strong business ethic, a very strong customer focus, but they have no marketing,” he said.
In addition to this, he said he would also be looking for individuals who wanted to start their own business, including a number of people already working for Click.ie who wanted to go out on their own.
‘‘We are looking for people from an IT background, because they need to have an understanding of how IT operates. They may be sitting on redundancy money and wondering how they could invest it,” he said.
Muldoon said that he had not finalised the terms of the franchise agreement, explaining that he was considering several models.
‘‘Cash up-front shows commitment for getting involved in the business. However, at the moment cash is tight and people may need to use that for fitout or something like that,” he said.
While traditional retailers nowadays have to compete with online players with lower overheads, Muldoon said he believed that there was ample scope yet for expansion in this market. Click.ie already had its own online operation, he said, while the network of stores allowed customers to avail of consultancy and support.
‘‘We will move close to 10,000 laptop units this year. We are in third position for laptop reselling in this country, and that is without any city centre locations. We’ve opened one city location in Dublin now and we’ll open two next year. That should double the level of units that we sell at the moment,” he said.
Click.ie, which employs 65 people, recorded turnover of €12 million last year. ‘‘Because we have opened more stores, the revenues have kept growing but the costs have kept growing as well,” he said.
While the company made a loss last year, this was primarily down to investing in expansion, according to Muldoon. ‘‘We are in a growth process. We have to put in the head office support, like marketing, buying and accounts. That’s all in place now and is a fixed cost.”
