Bankruptcy looms for Pieter Pot

Dutch package-free online supermarket Pieter Pot is no longer able to pay its debts. An acquisition allowed the company to avoid an immediate bankruptcy, but it must now quickly reach an agreement with its creditors.

Seeking goodwill from suppliers

Jordan Koppelle and Dominique Rommers, owners of salad producer Delicatessenfabriek, have taken over the shares in an attempt to save the Dutch scale-up from bankruptcy. Co-founder Jouri Schoemaker remains the face of the company (for now), but is no longer CEO nor shareholder.

The new owners now want to work towards a debt restructuring. In a letter to suppliers, they ask to settle for only “a percentage” of the outstanding sum, Retailtrends reports. To reinforce their plea, Koppelle and Rommers make it clear that otherwise bankruptcy is imminent and the suppliers will find themselves at the back of the queue.

“Things are looking good”, the new owners maintain nevertheless. They hope to find an agreement with the creditors as early as the end of this month, after which the duo is ready to pour fresh capital into Pieter Pot themselves. If 95 % of creditors agree, the company does not need “extreme amounts” to survive. In case of success, Koppelle and Rommers want to cut costs by doing more activities in-house. A second round of redundancies may follow, after last year’s termination of dozens of employees. Leaving Belgium, however, is not yet on the cards, the company says.