The textile discounter Kik wants to expand in the Netherlands and competes for the real estate of the former household ward dealer Blokker.
With the help of two expansion managers: Inside, Kik is now trying to take over as many former locations from Blokker as possible. The insolvent dealer closed its shops until the end of last year.
“We really fell on it to take over as many locations as possible. We grab everything we can get, ”said David Philipoom. In an interview with the Dutch daily newspaper Financieele Dagblad, the managing director of Kik Netherlands spoke about the fight that broke out around the remaining Blokker real estate.
Kik wants to open 20 branches in the Netherlands
In the course of the expansion to the Netherlands, KIK already took over real estate from bankruptcy chains such as Big Bazar and Bristol. After difficult times during the pandemic, the textile discounter wants to open twenty new branches in the Netherlands next to the seventy existing ones.
In the Netherlands, KIK made a loss of 10 million euros in 2018, which has now been reduced to 3 million euros today with a turnover of 50 million euros, said Philipoom. According to the manager, Kik himself is said to have recently generated sales of 2.8 billion euros.
Thirty years ago, Kik opened his first branch in Düsseldorf, and the number of locations has grown to more than 4,000 in Europe thanks to aggressive expansion.