In the third quarter of this year 13,100 housing construction permits were issued, 24 percent less than in the same period last year, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released. This is the third consecutive quarter in which fewer permits were issued than a year earlier.
Up to and including September, a total of 40 thousand construction permits were issued to build new homes. For comparison, throughout all of 2018 a total of 70 thousand housing construction permits were issued.
Every traveler who boards a plane in the Netherlands must be protected against the bankruptcy of airlines, according to travel companies’ association ANVR, travelers’ association ANWB, consumers’ association Consumentenbond, and travel guarantee fund SGR. On Monday they will submit a proposal for a guarantee fund for refunding individual tickets, the Telegraaf reports.
Lawyer Philippe Schol was walking his dog some 50 meters from his home on Lossersestraße in Gronau when he was shot by persons in a passing car at around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The victim told neighbors who rushed to help him that he was shot by two men he knows and that they were driving a Volkswagen Polo, the neighbors told newspaper AD.
Thirteen of the 30 major energy suppliers in the Netherlands have major debts, Consumentenbond concluded based on an analysis of their annual reports. The consumers' association therefore wants Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs to better protect consumers against the consequences of an energy supplier going bankrupt, NU.nl reports.
Travelers guarantee fund SGR opened an emergency number for Dutch travelers who are currently on a vacation booked through Thomas Cook. On Monday evening it was announced that all Thomas Cook Nederland and Neckermann trips scheduled for Tuesday were canceled. Around a thousand Dutch are affected by this, NU.nl reports.
All Dutch flights scheduled for Tuesday on Thomas Cook or Neckermann were scrapped as the parent company continued to deal with severe financial problems. Thomas Cook Group Plc declared bankruptcy early on Monday, and the company assured travelers that those using the Dutch branch of the travel agency would still be able to complete their holidays.
British travel agency Thomas Cook ceased all its activities due to money problems, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded worldwide. The consequences for Thomas Cook Nederland, which includes Neckermann Reizen, are still unclear, a spokesperson said to NOS.
A 43-year-old Albanian man was found dead in the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal at Nigtevecht on Friday afternoon. The victim is Festin Lato, the president of the unrecognized republic of Chameria, a region on the border of Albania and Greece that has been fighting for independence for years, De Gelderlander reports based on reports in Albanian media and confirmation from two of Lato's friends.
Hospitality businesses like restaurants and cafes are increasingly prevalent on Dutch shopping streets, as more and more retailers are disappearing from the landscape due to financial problems. The latest business struggling to cope in the Dutch retail scene is Canadian department store chain Hudson's Bay. Only two years after entering the Dutch market, the parent company is looking to cut back, which may include closing stores.
Dozens of small companies that received crowdfunding from commercial platforms in the form of a loan, went bankrupt a short time later, according to a study by investigative journalism platform Investico, Trouw and De Groene Amsterdammer. The companies end up in financial troubles due to the high costs involved in repaying their loans, Trouw writes.
Economic growth in the Netherlands will slow down this year, and that will affect businesses, according to ABN Amro. The bank's economists expect the Dutch economy to grow by 1.4 percent this year, almost half the growth 2018 saw. And the number of bankruptcies, excluding sole traders, will increase by 10 percent, ABN Amro expects, NU.nl reports.
A group of Intertoys franchisers are filing summary proceedings against the toy chain. They believe that the contract they were offered by the recently restarted company is "bad and unbalanced" and does not correspond to basic agreements previously made, Financieele Dagblad reports based on leaked correspondence.
The franchisers feel compelled to sign this contract, because otherwise they will be cut off from the chain, according to the newspaper. They hope that the court will ensure that they can continue to use Intertoys' IT system, among other things.
The parent company of the Hudson's Bay stores in the Netherlands, Karstadt in Germany, is considering closing stores this year or having the company declared bankrupt, the German WirtschaftsWoche reported based on internal documents on Friday.
The Sissy-Boy chian was declared bankrupt by the court of Amsterdam on Friday. The company filed for deferment of payment earlier this month. At that time, the company had 45 of its own stores and 600 employees, NU.nl reports.
The group made an attempt to become more profitable last year, by cutting costs and investing in stores. But like with many other retail chains in the Netherlands, Sissy-Boy suffered under a disappointing summer and winter, according to the newspaper.
The Enschede city council agreed to a support plan for FC Twente to prevent the football club from going bankrupt. The council agreed to write off part of the municipal loan to the club, and to convert another part of the loan into a subordinated loan on which no interest or repayment has to be paid. The condition to this agreement is that FC Twente returns its youth- and women's teams from Hengelo to Enschede as soon as possible, AD reports.
Icelandic airline WOW air canceled all its planned flights with immediate effect. This includes the daily flight between Amsterdam and Reykjavik. Both the flight to and from Amsterdam on Thursday are listed as canceled on Schiphol's website.
The new owners of toy store chain Intertoys are closing another 60 branches, the company said on Thursday. A total of 150 stores will close, and the group will continue with over 230 stores, around 100 of which are franchises, NU.nl reports.
Part of bankrupt toy store chain Intertoys is going to make a new start, the company announced on Friday. Portuguese investor Green Swan is acquiring half of the 286 stores. The others will have to close, NU.nl reports.
Depending on the number of stores that can remain open, between 1 thousand and 1,500 jogs will be retained, a spokesperson for the company said to the newspaper. Intertoys currently has 3,200 employees. At least half of them will be able to keep their jobs, according to the newspaper. At least 91 stores will close by mid-May at the latest.
Crowds of people descended on Intertoys stores throughout the Netherlands over the weekend. As the toy store chain was declared bankrupt on Thursday, Sunday was the last chance customers had to spend their unused gift cards. Customers faced delays both on Saturday and Sunday due to technical problems caused by the crowds, ANP reports.
Toy store chain Intertoys was declared bankrupt by the court in Amsterdam on Thursday. The chain's stores will remain open for the time being at the request of the bankruptcy administrators, who are still focusing on a restart for the company, NU.nl reports.
Young Dutch startup Nerdalize was founded in 2013 with a plan to warm homes using the heat generated from servers, but the innovative company filed for bankruptcy just before the end of the year. The company raised at least 850 thousand euros in a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 after running a pilot program with energy provider Eneco.
The company raised another 750 thousand euros in a second crowdfunding campaign about a year ago, which led to the company winning the Crowdfunding Award last January.
Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen of Infrastructure and Water Managements considers it possible that "some form of the Stint" electric cargo bikes will eventually be allowed to ride on Dutch roads again. "But the doubts about safety must be removed", she said during a parliamentary debate on the matter on Tuesday, NU.nl reports.
The Dutch Safety Board is launching an investigation into the way in which patient safety was handled after MC Slotervaart in Amsterdam and the MC IJsselmeer hospitals in Lelystad and surroundings were declared bankrupt last week. The Safety Board wants to examine how the interests of the patients were weighed before and during the bankruptcy process, NU.nl reports.
The St Jansdal Hospital in Hardewijk plans to take over outpatient care in Lelystad, according to a message sent to the staff of the bankrupt MC IJsselmeer hospitals. St Jansdal confirms that there are plans, but that they are not 100 percent certain yet, NOS reports.
