If store rents do not go down, shoe chain Bristol will move away from certain properties, CEO Elise Vanaudenhove said in an interview published Friday with The Financial Times (FD).
The top woman of the chain in the Netherlands and Belgium calls the amount of rents for retail premises in the city centers “taken off the pot”. “Landlords have felt untouchable for a long time, especially in the Netherlands. But that is no longer tenable, especially now that it is so quiet there. That is why we say: either the rent will go down or we will leave.”
Last week already known Bristol to close six more stores, in addition to the eleven stores that previously closed. These are stores in both the Netherlands and Belgium. Last year, eight stores closed their doors for good.
Forty branches would now still be on a list of ‘problem children’.
According to it FD The Bristol family business is in trouble due to years of losses, to which the corona crisis has come on top. The company is now in talks with banks about new financing because the reserves are too small.
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