Keymusic, which sells musical instruments and equipment, has again been declared bankrupt. That already happened in 2019. “It’s a shame”, owner Jan ‘t Hoen told RetailTrends. “We worked on it enthusiastically with a lot of people, but it didn’t work out.”
According to ‘t Hoen, the corona crisis is the main cause. “Especially the last corona battle in the fourth quarter of last year was a very tough one for us.” Stores had to close and the supply chain faltered. Keymusic has been focusing on growth since the restart in 2019, but financing turned out to be a problem. “We wanted to do that partly through private equity, but they all kept their hands on the purse strings in January.”
‘t Hoen, who paid around 5.5 million euros for the Dutch branch of Keymusic in 2019 and who also acquired the shares of the Belgian branch, was still very positive about the opportunities in April last year. Including franchise stores, the chain then had 26 stores, in the Netherlands and Belgium. Within two years there should be forty, was the idea. “Last year would be the year that corona would be a bit of the past, but that was not the case. And that has cut into it for us.”
Shops closed
Keymusic then dropped the growth scenario. “We have phased out the franchise this year and also closed a number of our own stores.” When ‘t Hoen filed for bankruptcy, there were still three own stores in the Netherlands: in Eindhoven, Utrecht and Rotterdam. Those are closed. According to curator Duco van Dongen, this also applies to a sales point in the Q-Factory music maker center in Amsterdam and the remaining franchise store in Den Bosch.
In Belgium, Keymusic currently has stores in Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent. There were no more franchise stores there. According to ‘t Hoen, a judicial reorganization procedure has been chosen in Belgium, whereby the company is temporarily protected against creditors. “We will see how that goes next week,” says ‘t Hoen. The stores in Belgium are open.
Interest in restart
Several parties have come forward that are interested in a restart, says the curator. It is not yet clear how big the chance of success is. “I don’t know yet. We are at an early stage for that,” says Van Dongen. The bidding procedure has not yet started.
The bankruptcy trustee has yet to investigate the cause of the bankruptcy. “I think it is still too early to say anything about that. But corona has of course not helped.”
