Our summary of what happened in Benelux retail starts with ‘confusing’ Dutch occupancy statistics and a record ending to 2016 for Belgian webshops. And much more…
Major Benelux news
- Fewer Dutch stores, but more retail space, remains unoccupied (12 Jan) NL
- Best holiday season ever for Belgian web shops (9 Jan) NL/FR
- Carrefour expands delivery and pick-up service in Belgium (12 Jan) NL/FR
- Dutch like-for-like growth Primark gets a hammering (12 Jan) NL/FR
Takeovers
- Carrefour acquires nine Tecno stores in North-Eastern Belgium (10 Jan) NL/FR
- McArthurGlen acquires Dutch outlet centre Rosada (11 Jan) NL
- Refina buys West-Flemish cheese specialist Triporteur (11 Jan) NL
Changes at the top
- Roland van den Berg new director e-commerce at AS Watson (10 Jan) NL
- Jan Willem Siebrand replaces Onno De Groot as director for Emté (9 Jan) NL
And also
- Belgian DIY chain Brico cuts 100 jobs (11 Jan) NL/FR
- Dutch Takeaway.com grows 54% after major expansions (12 Jan) NL/FR
- Hands free shopping project in Ghent fails terribly (12 Jan) NL
- Blokker announces major reform of 3 in 4 Belgian stores (12 Jan) NL/FR
- Belgian lingerie producer Van de Velde blames US for lower turnover (9 Jan) NL/FR
- Belgian MP demands attention for “overly priced” food for singles (11 Jan) NL
- Great-grandson of founder appointed to resurrect Smeets jenever (12 Jan) NL/FR
- One in ten car ads breach transparency rules (12 Jan) NL
- Cook & serve opens seventh store, plans five more (11 Jan) NL/FR
- Car web shop mycar.be opens first store in Wallonia (13 Jan) NL/FR
- Belgian supermarkets expand plastic bag charge to fruit and vegetable bags (13 Jan) NL
- Belgians spend ever more time and money in restaurants (12 Jan) NL/FR
- Marie Mero expands from three to five stores (13 Jan) NL
- Dutch supermarket chain Vomar stops delivery experiment (11 Jan) NL
- Dutch chain Primera sees turnover rise 3% (10 Jan) NL
- Zoetermeer city council welcomes new outlet centre (10 Jan) NL
- Turnover decrease and new losses for Coolcat and America Today (10 Jan) NL
- Amsterdam-based Patta aims for UK, US and Asia (9 Jan) NL
- Casa cuts 50 Belgian jobs (9 Jan) NL/FR
