Dutch household goods retailer closes 100 stores

In a statement released on Tuesday, the company said all operations which do not carry the Blokker name will be sold off. These include the Xenos, Big Bazar, Leen Bakker and Intertoys brands. The Marskramer chain will become a franchise operation.

Blokker said it will focus instead on its new-look store format, which will be rolled out to more than 400 shops in prime locations across the country, and its online presence blokker.nl. 

In total, the reorganisation will result in the loss of some 1,900 jobs over the next two years, mostly at the Marskramer and Blokker chains. The company’s distribution centre in Mijdrecht will also close down.

‘We realise only too well that this announcement will have a major impact on our staff,’ Blokker CEO Caspar Meijer said. ‘We are convinced our other retail formats have a promising future ahead with a new owner.’

Blokker began overhauling its high-street Blokker stores over a year ago and has been attempting to boost profitability since 2014. 

Decimated high street
The problems at Blokker are the latest to hit Dutch high streets since the economic crisis and rise of online retailing.

The  V&D department store chain went bankrupt at the beginning of last year and a number of its stores have since been leased to Canadian department store group Hudson’s Bay Company.

Other household goods names to disappear from the high street or run into financial difficulty include Megapool, Dixons, Harense Smid and Mikro-Electro.