The announced closure of the European distribution center of the Swedish fashion group H&M in Ghlin, Belgium is causing unrest. The consequences are felt beyond national borders.
The Belgian medium Retail Detail reports that the final closure of the site in autumn 2026 will lead to the loss of 440 jobs. Negotiations between management and the social partners are currently deadlocked. The employees have blocked access to the location. This poses a risk of bottlenecks for the Swedish company’s branch network in southern Europe, a situation that is being closely monitored by industry experts.
Logistical pressure before the summer collections
Since the announcement in March 2026 that the activities of the distribution center in Ghlin would be discontinued, discontent among the affected employees has been growing. “Bertrand Merlevede, regional secretary at CSC Transcom, questions why Belgium was chosen for this drastic cut and not one of the other two major camps in southern Europe,” the CSC union said in a statement.
The logistics center in Ghlin supplies H&M stores in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The blockade worries management. According to Retail Detail, this company is said to have placed an extraordinary order last Friday: the immediate dispatch of 720,000 of the 1.2 million items in stock by the following Tuesday. For comparison: A typical large delivery includes between 50,000 and 60,000 parts.
This unusual request indicates a rapid depletion of stocks in the Italian and Spanish stores. They are still suffering from the after-effects of an earlier strike in April. The situation is even more worrying as the strategically important summer sales are approaching.
The talks about the social plan that began on May 18th did not lead to any compromise. The dialogue between the unions and management now appears to have come to a standstill.
Philippe Dumortier, representative of the FGTB union, highlighted the deadlock to the Belga news agency: “A meeting planned for Wednesday was postponed and since then the social dialogue has been interrupted.” Faced with what they consider to be a complete breakdown in negotiations, union representatives have called for direct intervention from Swedish management to appoint a new negotiator.
In response to a request from the FashionUnited editorial team, the H&M Group said that it was following the situation closely, but could not comment further at the moment due to the ongoing nature of the matter.
This article was created using digital tools translated.
FashionUnited uses artificial intelligence to speed up the translation of articles and improve the end result. They help us to make FashionUnited’s international reporting quickly and comprehensively accessible to a German-speaking readership. Articles translated using AI-based tools are proofread and carefully edited by our editors before they are published. If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected]