Troubled retailer V&D in financial danger again

Financially troubled retailer V&D is back on the road to bankruptcy. The company filed for suspension of payments on Tuesday and the court in Amsterdam granted it on Wednesday morning, NU reports. The V&D staff will be informed about this on Wednesday morning. The suspension of payments applies to the whole group, including stores and restaurant chain La Place. In the Netherlands, suspension of payment mostly results in bankruptcy. Kees van de Meent and Hanneke De Coninck-Smolders were appointed as administrators. Early this year the retailer made massive cutbacks, but despite these measures V&D continued to suffer losses and their revenue is decreasing. Union FNV director NIels Suijker was caught off guard by this development. "There were signs that things were still not going well", he said to NU. "But we had understood that it was factored in that V&D would still be loss-making in the period 2015-2016. But apparently V&D no longer has the time. I do not know what's behind it." 2015 was a year of cutting costs and staying afloat for V&D. This summer it seemed that V&D managed to guarantee the company's continuity for at least a few years after they reached an agreement with the unions on the dismissal of some 400 employees. A previous attempt to cut their employees wages failed. The company also reached an agreement with a large part of their landlords about reducing the rent for many of its locations. V&D owner Sun Capital invested another 47 million euros in the struggling company, which was supposed to guarantee funding for the next four years.