Several Dutch stores belonging to the British shoe brand Clarks have gone bankrupt.
The locations in Amsterdam (two), Breda, The Hague, Eindhoven, Haarlem, Leidschendam, Maastricht, Rotterdam and Utrecht filed for bankruptcy on January 9, according to the public bankruptcy register. Lawyer Guido de Wit was appointed as insolvency administrator.
In addition to the stores’ respective companies, the Dutch Clarks Management BV is also insolvent. The reasons for this are currently unknown.
The Dutch Clarks stores are operated by the Mulder shoe family, according to their website. Mulder Schoenen expanded his portfolio to include stores in 2008, the first of which opened in The Hague.
Things haven’t been going well for the British shoe brand for some time now. In November 2023, a company spokesperson told FashionUnited that 103 jobs would be cut worldwide. “The company has a stable financial base, but to sustain the post-pandemic recovery, operating costs must be kept strictly under control.” The wave of redundancies was attributed to the difficult economic headwinds and the current cost of living crisis, both of which are having a negative impact on Clarks’ operating results.
Clarks achieved sales of 502.8 million British pounds (584.4 million euros) in the 2022 financial year. This corresponds to a decline in sales of two percent compared to the previous year, as shown in the annual report published in September 2023. At that time, the aforementioned threats and high inflation led to a slowdown in direct sales in the second half of 2022. The company expects these challenges to continue well into 2024.
The British shoe brand Clarks was founded in 1825 and is active in more than 35 countries.
De Wit has not yet responded to a request from FashionUnited.
This translated and edited post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl.