Toy shop chain Intertoys has become the latest Dutch retailer to run into financial trouble as it battles against competition from webshops and discounters.
The company, which has seen its turnover halve in the past 10 years, said on Tuesday it has applied for court protection from its creditors.
‘We have come to the conclusion following in-depth analyses that the current organisation needs to undergo hefty restructuring,’ the company said in a statement.
The close to 400 Dutch shops, of which around 100 are run by franchisees, will remain open while this takes place. Intertoys’ 42 stores in Belgium will remain outside the court proceedings. The company’s shops in Germany have all been shuttered in the past two years.
Intertoys was sold by its parent company, household goods chain Blokker, to UK investment house Alteri Investors in October 2017, along with Toys XL and Bart Smit. Financial details were not disclosed at the time.
Other Dutch casualties
The problems at Intertoys are the latest to hit the Dutch high since the economic crisis and rise of online retailing.
Parent Blokker itself announced last year that it would close some 100 loss-making stores as part of a major reorganisation.
Earlier, the V&D department store chain went bankrupt and a number of its stores have since been leased to Canadian department store group Hudson’s Bay Company.
Other household goods names to disappear from the high street or run into financial difficulty include Megapool, Dixons, Harense Smid and Mikro-Electro.
