This week in Benelux retail: Best holiday season ever for Belgian web shops

Our summary of what happened in Benelux retail starts with ‘confusing’ Dutch occupancy statistics and a record ending to 2016 for Belgian webshops. And much more…

Major Benelux news

• Fewer Dutch stores, but more retail space, remains unoccupied (12 Jan) NL
• Best holiday season ever for Belgian web shops (9 Jan) NL/FR
• Carrefour expands delivery and pick-up service in Belgium (12 Jan) NL/FR
• Dutch like-for-like growth Primark gets a hammering (12 Jan) NL/FR

Takeovers

• Carrefour acquires nine Tecno stores in North-Eastern Belgium (10 Jan) NL/FR
• McArthurGlen acquires Dutch outlet centre Rosada (11 Jan) NL
• Refina buys West-Flemish cheese specialist Triporteur (11 Jan) NL

Changes at the top

• Roland van den Berg new director e-commerce at AS Watson (10 Jan) NL
• Jan Willem Siebrand replaces Onno De Groot as director for Emté (9 Jan) NL

And also

• Belgian DIY chain Brico cuts 100 jobs (11 Jan) NL/FR
• Dutch Takeaway.com grows 54% after major expansions (12 Jan) NL/FR
• Hands free shopping project in Ghent fails terribly (12 Jan) NL
• Blokker announces major reform of 3 in 4 Belgian stores (12 Jan) NL/FR
• Belgian lingerie producer Van de Velde blames US for lower turnover (9 Jan) NL/FR
• Belgian MP demands attention for “overly priced” food for singles (11 Jan) NL
• Great-grandson of founder appointed to resurrect Smeets jenever (12 Jan) NL/FR
• One in ten car ads breach transparency rules (12 Jan) NL
• Cook & serve opens seventh store, plans five more (11 Jan) NL/FR
• Car web shop mycar.be opens first store in Wallonia (13 Jan) NL/FR
• Belgian supermarkets expand plastic bag charge to fruit and vegetable bags (13 Jan) NL
• Belgians spend ever more time and money in restaurants (12 Jan) NL/FR
• Marie Mero expands from three to five stores (13 Jan) NL
• Dutch supermarket chain Vomar stops delivery experiment (11 Jan) NL
• Dutch chain Primera sees turnover rise 3% (10 Jan) NL
• Zoetermeer city council welcomes new outlet centre (10 Jan) NL
• Turnover decrease and new losses for Coolcat and America Today (10 Jan) NL
• Amsterdam-based Patta aims for UK, US and Asia (9 Jan) NL
• Casa cuts 50 Belgian jobs (9 Jan) NL/FR