DE BIJENKORF

Background

De Bijenkorf is a premium department store chain in the Netherlands, which is owned by the Weston Family, who also own the Selfridges, Holt Renfrew and Brown Thomas department stores in the UK, Canada and Ireland.

In 2014, de Bijenkorf decided to close its Arnhem and Enschede stores, and appointed Hilco as its store partner to manage the closure of these stores.

Hilco Capital’s role

• Managed all aspects of the store closures on behalf of the retailer, providing store-level and head office support
• Guaranteed the minimum recovery achieved from selling the retail inventory
• Supplied €2 million of additional augment stock at no financial risk to De Bijenkorf
• Utilised Hilco’s proprietary Dutch POS to emphasise urgency and maximise recoveries, customised to fit the client’s display fixtures
• Honoured existing promotions that were running concurrently in the core estate
• Sold unwanted fixtures, fittings and equipment
• Left stores in ‘broom clean’ condition

Results

• Guaranteed minimum return exceeded by 21%
• All unwanted fixtures, fittings and equipment sold in situ through the closure event
• Provision of augment stock enhanced total recoveries and Hilco shared the gross margin with the retailer
• Stores left ‘broom clean’ for handing back to landlords
• Successfully removed the distraction of operating the stores closure process from De Bijenkorf’s management team, allowing them to focus on operating their core business