Vroom & Dreesmann

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Vroom & Dreesmann

Vroom en dreesman.svg

Vroom & Dreesmann logo in the 1980s

Industry Department store

Founded 1887; 134 years ago

Founder

Willem Vroom

Anton Dreesmann

Defunct15 February 2016; 5 years ago

Fate Bankruptcy

Headquarters Amsterdam

Parent Sun Capital Partners

Divisions 64 branches (2015)

+3 La Place stand alones

Vrrom & Dressmann on the Rokin in Amsterdam, 1930

Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D) was a Dutch chain of department stores founded in 1887.[1] It was declared
bankrupt on 31 December 2015,[2] although its branches were still in operation until 15 February 2016.
On 16 February 2016, it was announced that takeover negotiations had not led to an agreement,
ultimately resulting in the company's demise.[3]

In 2015, V&D operated 67 branches throughout the Netherlands, three of which were branded as La
Place, V&D's former subsidiary restaurant chain which had in-house and standalone restaurants
throughout the country. The department stores sold, among others, clothing and shoes, jewelry,
cosmetics, books, home-entertainment products, electric goods, stationery, cards and posters, furniture
and homewares. Most branches also had a La Place in-house restaurant, a travel agent and an ATM.
Larger branches also had a bakery.
Contents

1 History

1.1 1887–2007: Foundation and expansion of Vroom & Dreesmann

1.2 2007–2015: Final years and bankruptcy of V&D

1.3 Since 2015: Hudson's Bay and a V&D web store

2 References

History

Vroom & Dreesmann on the Grote Houtstraat in Haarlem, 1993

1887–2007: Foundation and expansion of Vroom & Dreesmann

Vroom & Dreesmann was founded in 1887 by Willem Vroom and Anton Dreesmann.[4] The first branch
opened in Weesperstraat in Amsterdam.[4]

The company expanded rapidly throughout the Netherlands in the 20th century.

Vroom & Dreesmann was reorganized into Vendex in 1972 and Vendex International in 1982.[5] In 1987,
the in-house restaurant chain La Place was opened. In 1988, Anton Dreesman was replaced as the
company's CEO with Abraham Verhoef.[6][7] In 1999, Vendex merged with Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer
(KBB), the parent company of retail chains De Bijenkorf and Hema, and was renamed into Vendex KBB.
[8] It also inherited KBB's royal designation "Koninklijk".[9]

In 2004, Vendex KBB was sold to a new investor group that included KKR, Alpinvest and Permira. It lost
its royal designation as a result, yet was allowed to keep the K in its name.[9] In 2005, Vendex KBB
changed its name into Maxeda.

2007–2015: Final years and bankruptcy of V&D

Closed and empty V&D in Utrecht after bankruptcy.

In 2007, Vroom & Dreesmann was rebranded into V&D[1] and the red, white and blue logo was replaced
with a black logo. In 2008, the vd.nl website was launched. From 2010 to 2015, V&D was a subsidiary of
Sun Capital Partners.
At the beginning of February 2015, it was unclear whether V&D would continue to exist.[10] Among the
reasons mentioned for its demise:

The rise of the internet with online shopping and the late start of V&D e-commerce.

Cheaper brick and mortar stores such as the Swedish H&M and Irish Primark that compete successfully
for V&D's market share.[5]

A lack of clear identity,[11] in comparison with these affordable stores and the more exclusive ones,
such as De Bijenkorf.[5]

The sale of the V&D real estate by the joint British-American ownership before Sun Capital, possibly
increasing the warehouse's operational costs. The claim, that this is part of the problem, has been
contested as, whether through capital costs or rent, the real estate needs to be accounted for one way
or another.

After negotiations, real estate owners agreed to reduce the area and costs of the rental properties,
employees agreed to a gradual pay cut, and the V&D owners agreed to inject capital, but not the
amount needed. Eventually, this problem was also resolved. In mid-March 2015, the rent reduction in
Den Bosch and Heerlen remained unresolved.[12] In May 2015, V&D kept working on reducing the rents
and a new business plan, to be implemented in the short term, which aimed to make V&D profitable
again in two years.

In December 2015, the firm was again under court protection for insolvency.[13][14] Under the new
situation, the website no longer sold articles.[13] V&D gift cards as well as air miles were no longer
accepted for payment.[13] On 31 December 2015, V&D was declared bankrupt.[14][2] The appointed
liquidators decided to keep the department stores open, pending restructuring and takeover talks with
several interested parties.[2] On 26 January 2016, Jumbo, a Dutch supermarket chain, announced that it
had acquired the subsidiary La Place with the exception of its in-house restaurants, in which it also
expressed an interest.[15] Further talks were on-going throughout January and February and ultimately
focused on CEO of the Dutch clothing retailer CoolCat and investor Roland Kahn.[16] On 16 February, it
was announced that the negotiations for a takeover had broken down. Various news media marked this
announcement as the definitive end of the company.[3][17][18] About 10,000 employees lost their jobs.
[2]

Since 2015: Hudson's Bay and a V&D web store

In V&D's latter days, Canadian retail group Hudson's Bay Company negotiated with the landlords to
acquire most of the company's premises without having an interest in the company itself.[19] In May
2016 Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) announced that it would take over up to 20 former V&D locations by
2017. HBC said the expansion would cost CAD $340 million and create 2,500 jobs in the stores and
another 2,500 temporary construction jobs. The Dutch stores would operate under the "Hudson's Bay"
and "Saks Off Fifth" brands.[20]
The brand name V&D was bought by entrepreneurs Ronald van Zetten, Roland Kahn, and Jaco Scheffers.
[21] In 2018 a web store with the V&D brand was opened.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vroom & Dreesmann.

As of mid-2019, Hudson's Bay Company still operated 15 stores in the defunct Vroom & Dreesmann
locations. On August 31, 2019, the company announced that all 15 of those stores would close by year-
end.[22][23]

References