CeX opens its first store in Ireland

The CeX franchise has arrived in Ireland, having opened its first store in Liffey Street Upper, Dublin, in April, right in the heart of Ireland’s busiest shopping location

CeX is a specialist buy and sell retailer of second-hand digital electronic and entertainment products with nearly 20 years of experience. The CeX business model allows customers to buy, sell and exchange a focused yet compliementary range of products including mobile phones, video games, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, digital electronics, computers, vision products and music CDs. Uniquely all goods are second hand, tested in store and sold with a 12 month warranty.

Complete entertainment eXchange (CeX) was established in London in 1992 and has expanded to become one of the UK's largest second-hand retail franchises, currently with over 130 stores across the UK, seven stores in Northern Ireland, rapidly expanding in the USA and Spain and soon to open in India.

The Master Franchise for Ireland is owned by Michael Kearney, Ed Murphy and Paul Reddy.

Michael and Ed are probably two of Ireland's most experienced and successful franchise owners, Michael having brought Snap Printing to Ireland 25 years ago, where Ed joined him some years later. In addition, both Michael and Ed brought the Home Instead Senior Care franchise to Ireland in 2005. Snap and Home Instead are two highly successful franchises and Michael and Ed will undoubtedly apply their vast knowledge and experience to the CeX franchise.

Paul, who is Managing Director of the business with responsibility for day to day operations and for rolling out the Franchise Owner Development Plan, is also a highly successful and experienced businessman having brought the Nokia business to Ireland in 1995, growing it to become a market leader in Ireland, and previously leading IT companies in Ireland and the UK.

"The plan for CeX in Ireland is to roll out 20-25 franchise stores across Ireland over the coming years applying the tried and tested CeX business model and principles in each store," explains Paul. "Our pilot store in Dublin has exceeded targets in its first two months and, given the success of the Northern Ireland stores, we expect similar success across the franchise stores in Ireland.

"We have an established process through which we take potential franchise owners before appointment to ensure candidates have the level of commitment, skill and funding to meet the requirements of the business. Throughout this process, CeX will be completely open and transparent in all aspects of a CeX store operation and will assist in every way to ensure franchise owners are properly briefed to make the decision to join our team."

One of the great benefits of becoming a CeX franchise owner is that the brand and the business model, applied by CeX, are established and successful across many countries and that through the CeX support team new franchise owners receive hands-on, highly experienced CeX store and people training. Also ongoing support and training is only a phone call away, as each franchise owner has a dedicated Franchise Manager who can arrange specialists from the CeX support centre to provide advice on areas including product testing, loss prevention, IT marketing and store operations.

CeX is definitely one of the most exciting franchise opportunities to come to Ireland in recent years and there could be no better timing for this business concept for Ireland.