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All bark and no bite?
“On 1 May, our pilot pick-up store in Eindhoven will shut down. We have gathered a lot of information about online retail and delivery point distribution, but from now on, orders can no longer be placed and our service will halt”, it states on the Superdirect.com website.
Customers can no longer use the pick-up point, except for groceries they have ordered up until the closure. No reason has been given for the sudden closure. Spokesperson Wilco Jansen also refused to divulge whether it had something to do with a lack of turnover.
It does seem like the ambitious Superdirect has burnt itself a bit, as Peter Pompen and Henk Niemandsverdriet had huge plans when they started superdirect.com: it wanted to be the challenger for the traditional parties involved in food and promised to be a “game-changer”.
Restart within Sligro’s lap
Superdirect.com aimed to get several hundred stores in the Netherlands, with a statement at the end of 2013 in which was stated that it planned to come to 14 new locations in 2014, but apparently that statement was overzealous.
It is unclear whether the formula will be restarted. Wholesale chain Sligro, which owns a majority in superdirector.com and served as its supplier, has already been notified of its closure, but it is not impossible that Sligro will use the “gathered knowledge of online retail and delivery point distribution”, as stated by the Superdirect entrepreneurs, within its own ranks.
