De Slegte makes comeback
Dutch press agency ANP announced the fact that De Slegte would return and Kris Landuyt, the manager at De Slegte Wapper Antwerpen, has confirmed the news to press agency Belga. De Slegte had been bought by ProCures and the chain was transformed into Polare, but now his name returns at his stores in Aalst, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Hasselt, Leuven and Mechlin.
You will be able to buy and sell second-hand books, study material and other books at De Slegte. “As we no longer rely on a Dutch main office and a central purchasing division, we will be able to tap into our customer’s desires concerning remaindered books much faster”, Kris Landuyt said.
“Our array of new books will remain“, Jan Bernard De Slegte confirmed. “We are now investigating how we can efficiently run the supplies”, because the lack of a main office means it might take some time to get the flow of new books going again. The chain is also working on a new website, because “De Slegte wants to play its part online as well”.
Failed Dutch adventure
The new start closes the chapter of the ‘failed’ Dutch adventure, which started in 2011 when Dutch investment fund ProCures bought the Belgian chain of book stores, fusing it with the Dutch chain of book stores, Selexyz, to become Polare.
Its new owner had big plans with the Belgian-Dutch book store combination, but failed to live up to his own expectations, which resulted in a Polare bankruptcy and in a struggle to find new purposes for every single piece of the organization.
