In a press release, C&A responded to articles that have appeared in the Belgian media over the past few days. According to the retailer, these reports “could give the wrong impression”. The Belgian media was full of articles about the closure of C&A stores in small and medium-sized towns and analyzed the retailer’s actions.
“As a brand, we want to respond clearly and reject these false statements, which have been taken completely out of context,” the statement reads The first starting point is that we want to be where our customers are looking for us, which means investing in the online shop, switching to platforms like Zalando and Amazon, and that has consequences that invests in and upgrades the store network. Over 70 stores have been modernized in the last 18 months.”
In the message, C&A also addresses the most recent closures and relocations. In Belgium, for example, nine stores were closed this year and the stores in Leuven and Bruges were relocated. The Brussels store on Nieuwstraat and the Antwerp store on Meir recently received a new store concept. C&A is currently working on projects in Ixelles, Genk and in the Ville 2 shopping center in Charleroi.
“A good example of how to put this optimization into practice is the Mechelen region. We recently redesigned our city store here. We have moved the store in Mechelen Noord to the brand new Malinas shopping centre. We had to close the store in Mechelen Zuid, but we were able to transfer all employees from that store to a store nearby. Not far from Mechelen, we also have another store in Boortmeerbeek,” says Stefanie Schneider, Country Manager for C&A Benelux. “This modernization strategy of our stores also allows us to strengthen our already very strong market position in Belgium over the past year.”
This translated and edited post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl.