Macintosh Retail Group wants to be debt-free

Sell fast

Macintosh was burdened by a 70 million euro debt last year and refinanced several times over the past few years in an attempt to keep the company afloat. CEO Kurt Staelens feels it is high time to change things around. “Once we have sold Kwantum and our British activities, we will be nearly debt-free. That should make things a lot easier when talking to banks, because then we will only need to talk about financing our operating capital”, he told Dutch paper De Telegraaf.

To be sure that things don’t go awry again, all divisions will have to report directly to the CEO. “We will follow our different businesses more closely as speed and agility are more important than ever.” He does realize investments are required in the Benelux. “We are a market leader in Belgium and the Netherlands, which makes things a tad easier there, but we will need the capability to invest if needed.”

That is why Staelens hopes to get rid of Kwantum and its British stores before the end of the year. There have been several binding offers for Kwantum, but it is still early stages for its British operations, with only a few indicative offers so far, according to the CEO.