Blokker finds new lender: sale definitively canceled | Economy

The agreement with investment company Gordon Brothers will be completed next week. It is not known what amount is involved. In any case, this concerns financing with a term of three years.

“We are very satisfied with the result achieved. This allows us to take good steps and challenges are converted into opportunities when it comes to the future of Blokker,” says CEO Ynse Stapert of Mirage Retail Group. “The sale of Blokker is no longer an option. We look to the future with confidence.”

Blokker has a total of four hundred stores in our country, employing five thousand people. The retail chain hopes to continue to grow online in the coming years and wants to expand the sale of products to platforms such as bol.com and Amazon.

Blokker will also focus even more on delivery. “Our stores play an important role in this: not only do customers often pick up their parcels in our stores, we are also increasingly delivering at home from our stores. We also offer this new role to third parties. We are already working with DHL and Ochama. We expect to add more partnerships soon,” the company said.

The intention was actually to list Blokker on the stock exchange in 2022. But at the end of 2021, the company postponed its IPO because the corona crisis caused a lot of uncertainty.

During that period, many shops were forced to close their doors. Shortly after his takeover of Blokker and other retail chains in 2019, then CEO Michiel Witteveen called a stock exchange listing an important step to secure the future of the company.

Things have been going wrong at Blokker for some time now. In recent months, operational director Dennis Besems, general manager Jeanine Holscher and financial director Allard Visser have left.

Earlier this year, Mirage Retail Group released its results for the 2022 financial year, which ran from February 1, 2022 to January 31 last year. Blokker suffered a loss of 11 million euros during that period.