Dutch shoe manufacturer Van Lier has closed all seven of its stores with immediate effect. The physical stores are too expensive in the current retail climate and “not future-proof”, the owning family says.
Physical stores under pressure
Van Lier is still investigating whether the stores – in Groningen, Lelystad, Maastricht, Roosendaal, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht – “can be continued in a different way”. The stores were not operated directly by Van Lier itself, but through a franchiser, Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad reports. Van Lier will continue to sell its shoes via its own webshop and via (online and offline) multi-brand stores.
Just two years ago, Van Lier went to the Nxchange (a stock exchange for small and medium-sized enterprises), hoping to raise capital for digitisation, marketing and international expansion. However, the yield was disappointing and the growth promise was not fulfilled: turnover hardly increased and instead of profit, the company recorded a significant loss for the 2023-2024 financial year. Van Lier did not disclose the exact size of that loss, but it led to an adjustment of the growth targets for 2024-2025.
Last month, CEO Christina van Spaendonck stepped down, less than two years after her appointment. Her father Geert van Spaendonck – owner of the family business since 1991 – took over again after her departure. The family hopes to find a way back to profit through digitisation and a focus on online sales.
