Leen Bakker gives up Belgium

Dutch interior design chain Leen Bakker gets protection from creditors in Belgium. A buyer is being sought for the 44 stores, most of which are structurally loss-making. Sister company Kwantum falls outside the procedure.

Millions lost

On August 14, loss-making Leen Bakker obtained protection from creditors. That procedure runs until December 7: by then, two court-appointed liquidation experts must have found a buyer for the stores, which will remain open in the meantime. So writes De Tijd. The retailer has 44 stores in Belgium, employing 309 people. According to Belgian director Thierry Leys, an “investor is being sought who has the capacity to continue the business in a sustainable way.”

Whether that is a realistic expectation remains to be seen. According to insiders, two out of three stores are structurally loss-making. The chances of all of them finding a buyer seem slim. The chain’s sales fell from 78 million euros in 2021 to 59 million last year. In the physical stores sales fell by 15%, in the online store by 6%. The loss amounted to 5.7 million euros. Sister company Kwantum, also part of Homefashion Group, is said to be profitable with its 15 stores in Belgium and thus not affected by the protection procedure.

More home furnishing retail chains suffer from high inflation, fierce price competition and the rise of e-commerce: earlier this year Casa went bankrupt, Maisons du Monde is restructuring and Ikea is forced to lower prices. New competitors such as Jysk and Action, as well as Bol and Amazon, are putting further pressure on the sector