Hema enforces rent reduction

Dutch retail chain Hema has reached an agreement with some of its landlords to halve the rent for its stores for April and May. It would appear that the intention of the Amsterdam-based retailer is to extend this agreement to all of its stores.

Temporary arrangement

A number of landlords accepted the company’s proposal to halve the rents for March and April, Retailtrends reports. Like many other retailers, Hema is seriously affected by the coronavirus crisis: all the chain’s Belgian stores are already closed and the Dutch stores have noticed a strong decrease in the number of customers. In such circumstances, “unorthodox measures are necessary”, a spokeswoman says.

All the chain’s Dutch stores will remain open until the government forces them to close. Until then, office staff will come to the aid of the permanent store employees. The number of online orders is also said to increase.