expansie

Dutch retailers, brace yourselves: Amazon is serious about its expansion to the Netherlands. The previously announced Dutch webshop is opening its doors later this year and will offer "millions of products" straight away. Will Belgium follow in the slipstream?

Dutch retailer Jumbo saw its 2019 turnover go up by almost 15 %, fuelled by both the opening of dozens of new stores and a like-for-like growth that exceeded that of the market. Its expansion to Belgium is proving highly successful.

Food, decorations and health are gradually taking the place of fashion chains on the Belgian high street and in shopping centres. Rents are falling, except for those outlets along main roads. And of course, the dividing line between physical shops and online sales is becoming even more blurred.

Irish Primark has said it will expand to Slovakia in 2022, with a shop in the Eurovea shopping centre in the capital Bratislava. The Central European country will then become the fifteenth market for the fashion discounter.

Dutch shoe chain Omoda is to open a Danish web shop before the end of the year, expanding to Finland, Norway and Sweden in 2020.

The owner of Dutch retail chain Action, British investment company 3i, announced in its half-yearly figures that the discounter is now worth more than 10 billion euros. Last year, the value of the retailer was estimated at 'just' 6.5 billion.

Belgian chain Medi-Market has opened its first French store in Roncq, near the border with Belgium. The drugstore chain is also soon to open more stores in Italy, as it aims to profit from advantages of operating on a European scale.