Background
Founded in 1887 as Vroom & Dressmann, V&D grew to become the largest department store chain in the Netherlands, trading from 67 stores. A late entrant to ecommerce and facing increasing competition on the high street from value fashion retailers such as H&M and Primark, V&D began to struggle in the early 2010s.
The business formulated a turnaround plan which included targeting its property overheads through renegotiating rents and closing unprofitable stores. In 2014, V&D decided to close its Den Haag Leyweg store and outsourced the process to Hilco Capital to manage end-to-end.