Hunkemöller buys out Dutch franchise branches

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Oct 25, 2017

Lingerie retailer Hunkemöller has taken over its Dutch franchise branches. The move is in order to further grow the company, said CFO Ron Hemmer in an interview with Het Financieele Dagblad.

To date, Hunkemöller has acquired 36 Dutch franchise branches, including its employees. The company has agreed upon a preliminary sale agreement for a further 25, and for a final four franchise stores it has not yet secured an agreement.

“The number of product groups and the type of products are on the rise.  The company is opening larger stores and investments are increasing. We have concluded that this retail franchise [form] is difficult. There is complexity and that will only become more [complex],” Chief Financial Officer Ron Hemmer told the Financieele Dagblad in regard to the decision to buy out franchise branches.

In the next five years, Hunkemöller plans to double the number of stores from 819 to 1,600, and its turnover, which is currently at €500 million. One of the strategies to do so is the expansion of HKMX, the retailer’s own sports brand. HKMX will operate as a separate chain with about fifty branches in total, the first of which opened in Berlin in 2017. The first Dutch branch of HKMX is set to open at Utrecht’s Hoog Catharijne shopping center in December.

Hunkemöller currently has 819 stores around the globe, of which 176 are located in the Netherlands. About 50 of the oversees stores are franchise branches, including stores in Russia and India, which the company currently has no plans to buy out. At the end of 2017 Hunkemöller plans to have added 140 more stores worldwide to its portfolio. The company is currently market leader in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.