Polare workers buy shop out of bankruptcy

The Rotterdam bookshop of the bankrupt Polare chain may survive. A group of Polare employees announced on Monday that they have managed to collect enough money to take over the shop. It will be established on the Coolsingel under its old name, Donner, the Telegraaf reports. 

The group of employees say different individual investors and crowd funding are behind the money. According to the curator, it is true that the agreement is "a hair's breadth" away from being done, the signatures must still be put down. Only then is there a "real accord", he says. The curator hopes that this will happen Tuesday.

Earlier, it became clear that the Eindhoven establishment of Polare will be taken over by establishment manager Paul van Orsouw and entrepreneur Arjen de Koning. That shop will continue under the old name Van Piere.

Polare went bankrupt at the end of February. The curator has been trying since then to sell of individual bookstores separately or in groups. Meanwhile, the establishments just stay open. The chain store came out of the union of Selexys and De Slegte. The chain also owns famous bookstores such as the former Broese (Utrecht), Scheltema (Amsterdam), Dominicanen (Maastricht) and Verwijs (The Hague). Polare's curator is still in discussion with other parties who may want to take over one or several establishments.