Blokker family member is a part of group preparing restart with the retail store chain

Roland Palmer, whose uncle is the late Jaap Blokker, is a part of the group that is going to attempt a restart with his uncle’s bankrupt store chain, de Telegraaf reported. Palmer had been CEO of the company in the past and promised to lead the company for 30 years, but he was unable to fulfill his promise.

Palmer’s cousin, Erwin Blokker, confirmed the reports on Monday that Palmer was a part of the group that is attempting to buy Blokker. Palmer was the CEO from 2011 to 2015 before he was fired for creative differences.

The Blokker family still owns at least 35 properties with Blokker branches. People involved in the deal think that these businesses, along with 45 franchise stores, will be just about enough to establish a distribution network and operate a purchasing office. The bankruptcy administrator thinks it will take months before it is completely decided which stores will be able to continue as Blokker stores and which cannot.

The proposed restart will be too late for 3,000 of Blokker’s employees. They will be fired at the end of the year. If they want to work at Blokker again, their years of service will be lost. The franchisees will also have to renegotiate the terms of a collaboration.

Roland Palmer was trained to become the new boss of Blokker with stints at Unilever and Coca-Cola. He joined the board when his uncle Jaap passed away after a fight with cancer in 2011.

But his time as CEO was filled with arguments with Jaap’s brother AB. The arguments were mainly about Palmer’s insistence on using technology more with AB being against the idea.

Palmer worked for the Chinese web shop company Alibaba after leaving Blokker. It is unclear whether he will continue to work there or take charge at Blokker.