Even though Belgian chocolate maker Neuhaus is suffering from the Covid crisis, it continues to have faith in the future and is opening new stores.
First loss in fifteen years
For the first time in fifteen years, the chocolate branch of Bois Sauvage had to report a loss: the profit figures crashed from 14.3 million above zero in 2019 to minus 2.9 million last year. The big culprit, again, is the Covid crisis – specifically, the absence of tourists from China, Japan, and the United States who are enamoured with chocolates.
However, CEO Ignace Van Doorselaere believes the Covid crisis is “a temporary crisis that will last a year or two”. Therefore, Neuhaus has mainly applied temporary measures, but hopes to get back to 2019 levels as soon as possible (preferably even as early as next year). Only sales to business travellers might never fully recover, the CEO told Belgian newspaper De Tijd.
New stores
Based on the faith in a quick recovery, Neuhaus is planning new stores in The Hague and London soon, after recently having opened stores in Berlin and Düsseldorf, to name a few. However, “one in ten stores is under threat of closure”, De Tijd writes. Neuhaus did not close any stores permanently during the Covid crisis, the company says: the belief in brick-and-mortar outlets remains solid.
Nevertheless, even the chocolate maker cannot manage without the internet: thanks to a partnership with Hallmark, anyone who sends a postcard from the card giant can now send a box of Neuhaus chocolates along with it. There are even more creative online collaborations, especially in the United States. Those are necessary, says Van Doorselaere, because “tourism will not have fully recovered by next year either.”
