Pauline Boerman will lead the Blokker household chain. Who is the new CEO?
Boerman (47) has been working at Blokker since 2015, when she switched from Hema. At the time, she already had a 27-year career in retail. The Purmerend native started at V&D after studying Fashion Management & Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. In 2005 she became a buyer at clothing store Wonder Woman, a role she subsequently also fulfilled at V&D and later at Action. She also did purchasing at Ahold Delhaize and was head of home and seasonal products at Hema. In 2020, she switched from things to people at Hema: she became HR manager.
She maintained that attention to the human aspect when she started last year as purchasing director at Blokker, where she had also worked before. According to The Financial Times she is known as someone who “can forge good relationships”. Or, as she writes in her LinkedIn bio: “My talent is disarming, which helps me create a pleasant atmosphere.”
Early next year, Boerman will succeed director Jeanine Holscher, who led the company for four years.
Blocker is out of the red numbers, but it is not yet profitable. The economic climate is not ideal, with costs rising worldwide. What relevant experience does Boerman bring to the table to boost the company’s upward trend under these circumstances?
Due to her versatile business past, she knows many aspects of business. At V&D she learned to be frugal and creative, says former colleague Debbie Klein to the FD. “We didn’t have a nail to scratch our asses there.” During her time at Hema, the department store chain was burdened by a large debt. Bankruptcy threatened and creditors took over the place. So she is used to turbulent times.
She can keep an eye on the money, but also has a sense of trends, says former Hema director Tjeerd Jegen in the FD: it was Boerman who introduced well-selling products such as the folding crate and retro fans at Hema and further expanded the range.
What will Boerman have to deal with at Blokker?
Probably the sales – not of the products, but of the company itself. Parent company Mirage Retail Group, led by seventy-year-old businessman Michiel Witteveen, put toy chain Intertoys up for sale earlier this year. Witteveen said at the time that he also wanted to get rid of the other retail chains because of his age. “You don’t stay the owner forever. Everyone dies at some point, including me.” Before Blokker is sold, owner Witteveen wants the household chain to achieve better results. Boerman gets that task.
Although Blokker is heading for a break-even result and the company is therefore no longer loss-making under Boerman’s predecessor Holscher, you can say that Holscher’s mission to make Blokker profitable has not been successful.
In her new position, Boerman will be in charge of four hundred stores and four thousand employees. It is her first position as ultimately responsible. During her time as Blokkerbaas, Holscher gave many media interviews and therefore became a well-known face. It is not yet clear whether her successor will also do so. So far, Boerman has mostly remained in the shadows.
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