NOS News•today, 12:16•Amended today, 4:53 PM
The loss-making retail chain Blokker has found a lender, securing the company’s future. This also means that the sale is finally over.
Blokker had been working on a refinancing for some time, but that ultimately took longer than expected. Ultimately, Gordon Brothers, an American investment company, provided the company with a three-year loan.
“We are very satisfied with the result achieved,” says Ynse Stapert, CEO of Mirage Retail Group, which includes Blokker. “We look to Blokker’s future with confidence.”
Blokker has no plans to radically change course. The retail chain wants, among other things, to expand the number of ‘private label’ products. It also wants to deliver more online orders to customers through its stores.
The company also wants to expand the number of services in its stores. “There are already many stores that are parcel collection points,” says Stapert. “We see even more opportunities there, for example for returning and recycling products.”
Been losing for years
Blokker has approximately 400 stores and more than 4,000 employees. The company has been making losses since 2014. Last year the company recorded a gross loss of 2 million euros.
The Blokker family sold their company to Mirage Retail Group in 2019. That company previously also put Intertoys in the shop window, but failed to sell the toy company. Mirage was also the owner of electronics chain BCC, which went bankrupt last year.
Gordon Brothers previously saved photography company Polaroid from collapse. It also supervised the empty sales of department stores Hudson’s Bay and Vroom & Dreesmann.
