Erotic chain Christine le Duc shuts half of all stores

Erotica chain Christine le Duc is closing 13 of its 26 stores. This means that 40 of the 80 jobs will be lost, but there will not be forced redundancies, the company announced on Monday, according to news wire ANP. According to the company, the 13 closing stores are no longer profitable due to an increase in online sales. Each of the closing stores suffered an annual loss of between 70 thousand and 100 thousand euros. "We also have to deal with fewer people in the stores", Kees Vlasblom, interim CEO of German parent company Beate Uhse, said in a statement. He added that the remaining 13 stores that are still profitable are "simply in a better place" than the closing stores. Christine le Duc will be closing stores in Maastricht, Utrecht, Breda, Heerlen, Apeldoorn, Leeuwarden, Amersfoort, Hoorn, Delft, Enschede and Ede late February. The store on the Spui in Amsterdam is closing in May and one store in Rotterdam is closing in June. The rest of the stores in the Netherlands will remain intact, according to Vlasblom. The remaining stores will "with full force" continue to focus on local marketing, trade shows and helping customers "who want to use their senses when buying erotic articles", he said. Parent company Beate Uhse is the largest erotica company in Europe. The group operates in ten European countries. In 2014 the Beate Uhse Groups sales amounted to nearly 143 million euros with approximately 20 thousand products. The closing Christine le Duc stores is the umpteenth setback for the Dutch store front. Over the past few years a number of retail chains were declared bankrupt, including pharmacy chain DA, House of Shoes, Schoenenreus, V&D and Macintosh shoe stores.