Belgian low cost footwear retailer Brantano has announced that it has come to an agreement to sell all of the company’s points of sale in the Netherlands to A.S. Watson, a European retail group. The sale includes all of the company’s Dutch lease contracts and staff.

According to Brantano, although the 38 Dutch outlets registered positive growth in 2004, it was deemed insufficient to warrant continuation and it was thus decided that the stores should be sold on to A.S.Watson. 

Brantano made its entrance into the Dutch market In April 2000 with the takeover of 29 Toe Sjoes and 18 Van Vorst stores from the VVM Retail Group. Toe Sjoes and most of the Van Vorst stores were converted into Brantano outlets and the Brantano concept was implemented on an adapted basis. However, the latter did not occur completely in line with company wishes. A number of external circumstances forced Brantano to deviate from some of its basic principles in the Netherlands: here the stores are located in the city centre and not out-of-town as in other countries and the stores have a smaller sales floor area than the average Brantano store. This means that only a limited range of products could be presented and there was greater local competition. The fact that the Dutch market tends to be more driven by price than quality, combined with very low consumer confidence in recent years, significantly complicated implementation of the Brantano concept.

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