Shoe chain Van Lier closes all seven stores

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.