Furniture
Dutch Hema is feeling the strength of its new owner Marcel Boekhoorn. Four of the current eight directors have to leave the company in the next few months, they will not be replaced.
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Dutch retailer Hema has finally found a new owner: Ramphastos Investments. This investment company in the hands of Dutch enterpreneur Marcel Boekhoorn has paid an undisclosed amount for the internationally successful chain.
General
Dutch chain Hema has opened its first store outside of Europe, in Abu Dhabi. With this store, the chain wants to test which products are successful in this new market.
The Dutch Hema chain has ended the franchising agreement for 24 stores after a long lasting dispute about how much franchisers have to pay for online sales.
Dutch Hema has raised its quarterly turnover by 2.8 % to 291.4 million euro and halved its net loss to 6 million euro, as a result of a strong growth online and offline. The retailer focuses on Germany as a target for future expansion plans.
Belgian investment fund Core Equity will not take over the Dutch Hema group after all, as an agreement with franchisers about e-commerce could not be reached.
Fashion
Store chain Hema needs to pay a 4.4 million euro fine to jeans brand Levi’s after the latter went to court because Hema applied its V-shaped stitching to its own collection.
Belgian Core Equity holding is allegedly close to acquiring Dutch chain HEMA: a verbal agreement is apparently in place, all that is required are the signatures.
After years of losses, Hema now experienced its second profitable quarter in a row. The department store chain is also happy with its annual turnover: it published a 1,235.5 million euro record turnover, a 3.5 % increase.
Dutch department store chain Hema, on sale since September, is not attracting much attention, because interested parties feel it is overpriced. Previous attempts to sell the company have also failed.
Hema will head outside of Europe for the first time ever: it will open three stores in Dubai later this year. In the next five years, the Dutch chain aims to open a sizeable number of Middle-Eastern stores.
It seems the sale of Dutch store chain Hema is not going all too well. According to local business paper FD, there are only two or three interested parties. Not a single strategic partner seems interested, only investment firms.
Hema has become profitable again: after improved net losses in the past quarters, the Dutch chain has managed to become profitable again in the third quarter.
Dutch Hema has opened its first Belgian flagship store in Brussels, based on its international store formula. It will open a similar store in Antwerp by the end of the week.
Store chain Hema has major plans for Germany: in the next three years, it will open at least seventy new stores, which is a huge increase compared to the eleven it currently has in the country. Hema also targets shop-in-shops and stores in train stations.
Hema wants to open another 150 stores in Spain. Following stores in Madrid and Barcelona, the Dutch chain is now targeting cities like Valencia, Bilbao, Malaga and Seville. French and German expansion are also on the to-do-list.
