Blokker sees Belgian turnover crash, reduces board

The Dutch Blokker chain is having a bad spell, as it had to report a 21 % turnover drop in its Belgian stores. Moreover, the board of directors is being reduced from eight to five members. 

Huge turnover drop

The decrease in turnover (to 86.8 million euro) was not a big surprise, after the group had to close over sixty stores. Nevertheless Blokker, suffering from increasing competition by Action and online shops, will continue its transformation plan this year, a press release said. CEO Rob Schuyt sees hope in the fact that the stores that were converted to the new format have seen a 30 % increase in sales. The chain therefore wants to invest in transforming 35 stores this year, and adding to that it wants to create a pop-up format in which it can sell overflow stock. 

Abroad the chain is in trouble as well, illustrated by a record loss of 344 million euro. All its sibling chains (Bart Smit/Intertoys, Leen Bakker and Xenos) are being cut loose to focus on the eponymous chain, and now the board of directors too is being reduced too: Odile Bocxe, Corné Mulders and Koen van Doorn are out and only five directors remain. “The era of strategic management is over, the foundation is in place an we can build on that now”, Dutch newspaper FD quotes a spokesperson.