Loss-making household store chain Blokker is up for sale
Blokker is for sale. Owner Mirage Retail Group has sent a document offering the loss-making retail chain to potential buyers, Financieele Dagblad reports after seeing the document. Mirage Retail Group is looking for new money after the sale of the toy store chain Intertoys failed last year.
Blokker, with 400 stores and some 4,000 employees, has been in the red for years, achieving a negative gross operating profit of 1.8 million euros in the past financial year, which ended on January 31. The chain of household stores faces the same difficult conditions as other retailers - consumers have less to spend due to inflation and moderate economic growth, and retailers face increased costs due to inflation and higher wages.
Many retailers also have coronavirus debts with the Tax Authority that are now due. Blokker still has to pay 28 million to the tax office. Furthermore, Blokker has been losing market share for years to bargain chain Action and online stores like Bol.com and Coolbue.
Despite all this, the sales document - drawn up by acquisition advisor Oaklins - paints a picture of potential to buyers. According to the document, turnover should increase from 342.3 million to 410 million over the next two years, and red figures should make way for a positive gross operating result of 28 million euros.
Ynse Stapert, director of Mirage Retail Group since the start of this month, confirmed to FD that Blokker is for sale. According to Stapert, Blokker is doing “very well” beneath the surface. “With the results of the past few weeks, we are confident that things are really going in the right direction,” he told FD. Stapert wouldn’t comment on an asking price.
When presenting the annual figures earlier this month, Stapert said that Mirage Retail Group was looking for new financing. It planned to sell the successful toy chain Intertoys, but that acquisition fell through at the end of December. Mirage has shelved its sales plan for Intertoys for at least a year.
