V&D returns as online store
Nearly three years after being declared bankrupt, retailer V&D is back, but only as an online store. The online store is focused on the "interests of active over 40 year olds, such as travel, hobbies, health, lifestyle, gardening and fashion", AD reports.
The department store chain was declared bankrupt late in 2015. The V&D trademark rights were bought by CoolCat founder Roland Kahn, his right hand man Jaco Scheffers and former HEMA CEO Ronald van Zetten. Alexander van Slooten is the director responsible for the online store, which launched on Wednesday.
Shortly after the final V&D stores closed, plans for a V&D online store were announced. But the relaunch was postponed again and again. Last year the online store seemed to be doomed. "We no longer see a gap in the market for a V&D web shop, in addition to web shops like Wehkamp and Zalando that are already there", Van Zetten told AD in April last year.
But since then the entrepreneurs decided to breath new life into V&D after all. "We kept getting a lot of questions about it. From suppliers and from customers. The target group of over-40s is not being served well by anyone", Van Zetten now said to the newspaper. "We now have the technology to do this well. We worked on this for six months behind the scenes. "
According to Van Zetten, the new online store must give a "follow up on the rich history of Vroom and Dreesmann". They are therefore relaunching well-known brands from the department store chain's past, including Liv, Soho and Prijzencircus.
