Vroom & Dreesmann

Vroom en Dreesmann

Genre	Department Store
Founded	1887
Founder	Willem Vroom, Anton Dreesmann
Parent	Sun Capital Partners
Divisions	64 branches (2015) +3 La Place stand alones
Slogan	Leef je uit
Website	www.vd.nl

Old V&D logo outside its Almere branch

Vroom & Dreesmann store in Rotterdam

Vroom & Dreesmann (official name over most of its history), now exclusively V&D, is a bankrupt Dutch chain of department stores that as off the beginning of January 2016 still holds its branches open.^[1] In 2015 V&D has 67 branches throughout the Netherlands, out of which 3 are branded La Place. La Place is a restaurant chain owned by and operated in V&Ds. It also has stand-alone restaurants throughout the country.

All V&D stores sell designer clothing & shoes, jewellery, cosmetics, a wide selection of books, CD & DVD home entertainment, electrical goods, stationery, cards & posters, furniture, homewares and a selection of delicatessen. The average V&D store also features one or more restaurants, a travel agent and an ATM. Larger branches also have an in-store bakery.

History

19th century

V&D was founded in 1887 by Willem Vroom and Anton Dreesmann. The first V&D store opened in Weesperstraat in Amsterdam.

20th century

Vroom & Dreesman expanded rapidly throughout the Netherlands.

The ownership of V&D was reorganized into Vendex in 1972 and Vendex International in 1982.^[2] In 1987 the popular La Place was opened in the V&D warehouses. In 1988 Anton Dreesman was replaced as CEO of V&D by A.J. Verhoef.^[3]

Vendex merged in 1999 with the De Bijenkorf holding company, owners of warehouse De Bijenkorf and Hema, a variety store.

21st century

Vendex KBB was sold to a new investor group in 2004 that included KKR, Alpinvest, and Permira. In 2005 Vendex KBB was rebranded as Maxeda. On 8 September 2007 Vroom & Dreesmann introduced a new logo, replacing the old red and blue logo after 10 years. In 2008 the vd.nl website was established, much after other warehouses started selling online.

Since the end of 2010 V&D is a subsidiary of Sun Capital Partners.

Bankruptcy

In 2015 it is on the verge of bankruptcy.^[4] Among the reasons mentioned for its demise:

• The rise of the Internet with online shopping and the late start of V&D e-commerce.
• Cheaper brick and mortar stores such as the Swedish H&M and Irish Primark that compete successfully for V&D's market share.^[2]
• A lack of clear identity,^[5] in comparison with these affordable stores and the more exclusive ones, such as De Bijenkorf.^[2]
• The sale of the V&D real estate by the joint British-American ownership before Sun Capital, possibly increasing the warehouse's operational costs. The claim, that this is part of the problem, has been contested as, whether through capital costs or rent, the real estate needs to be accounted for one way or another.

At the beginning of February 2015 it is unclear if V&D will continue to exist. Owners of real estate agreed to reduce the area and costs of the rental properties, employees agreed to a gradual pay cut, and the owners of V&D agreed to a inject capital, but not the amount needed. Eventually this problem was also resolved. In Mid-March 2015 the rent reduction in Den Bosch and Heerlen remained unresolved.^[6] In May 2015 V&D keeps working on reducing the rents and a new business plan, to be implemented in the short term, said to make V&D profitable again in 2 years.

In December 2015 the firm is again under court protection for insolvency.^[7][8] Under the new situation the website no longer sells articles and V&D gift cards as well as air miles are no longer accepted for payment.^[7]

On 31 December 2015, V&D was declared bankrupt.^[8][9] The stores aim to remain open for a few weeks to sell current stocks, while the "former" employees are paid from a Dutch government fund to show up for work. A new investor could restart the firm.^[10]

On January 26, 2016 Jumbo, a Dutch supermarket chain, announced that it had acquired V&D's restaurant chain, La Place, out of bankruptcy for an undisclosed amount of money.^[11]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vroom & Dreesmann.

• Vroom & Dreesmann, official website
• summary of recent events in Dutch