IRISH-OWNED book and stationery retailer Eason has reached agreement with staff on a cost reduction programme that will involve about 150 voluntary redundancies as it seeks to achieve savings of €5 million a year.

The company has also decided to close its shop at Talbot Street in north inner city Dublin.

It will cease trading on March 12th.

The shop’s 12 staff will be offered redeployment. They can also avail of the redundancy programme.

The Talbot Street store had experienced a significant reduction in footfall and turnover in the recession.

Customers will be redirected to Eason’s flagship store on nearby O’Connell Street.

Consultations with staff and union representatives about the restructuring plan have taken place over the past nine months, under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission.

Staff are being offered five weeks pay per year of service, including their statutory entitlement, up to a maximum €100,000.

Eason employs about 1,000 staff in the Republic.

Eason has also completed a refinancing of its banking facilities with Barclays Bank.

Latest accounts show that Eason was due to repay a bank loan of €21.5 million in August of this year but has agreed a three-year facility with Barclays to support its new business plan and capital investment programme.

“We are delighted to complete this process,” managing director Conor Whelan told The Irish Times yesterday. “It’s a vote of confidence in our business plan from Barclays.”

As part of its business plan, Eason intends to spend €12 million upgrading its IT systems over the next 18 months to deliver improved margins and cost efficiencies.

Last year Eason said it would invest €20 million over three years on store refurbishments, a new retail and marketing strategy, new IT systems and an upgrade of its digital and online offering.

Mr Whelan said Eason’s trading performance in December 2011, the busiest month of the year for the company, was “satisfactory”.

On a like-for-like basis, sales at company-owned stores in the Republic increased by 1.7 per cent.

This excluded its airport business, which was impacted by the opening of Terminal 2 in Dublin.

This resulted in passenger traffic being split between the two terminals. Eason’s shops are based in Terminal 1.

The books category performed well with sales down 0.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

Eason also experienced an uplift in online sales over the Christmas period following a relaunch of its website.

Eason’s sales performance in December compares with a decline of 4.8 per cent in the overall retail market for books, stationery and newspapers, according the Central Statistics Office.

In Northern Ireland, Eason’s sales in December rose by 12.4 per cent.

This reflected its acquisition of the WH Smith store in Belfast last October.

Like-for-like, sales in Northern Ireland declined by 2 per cent.