In 2015, V&D operated 67 branches throughout the Netherlands, of which 64 department stores and 3 standalone locations of La Place, V&D's former subsidiary restaurant chain which had in-house and standalone restaurants throughout the country. The department stores' product range included clothing and shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, books, home-entertainment products, electric goods, stationery, cards and posters, furniture and homewares. Most branches also had a La Place in-house restaurant, a travel agent and an ATM. Larger branches also had a bakery.
Vroom & Dreesmann was founded in 1887 by Willem Vroom and Anton Dreesmann.[2] The first branch opened in Weesperstraat[nl] in Amsterdam.[2]
The company expanded rapidly throughout the Netherlands until 1972.
Vroom & Dreesmann hits a plateau, 1972–2007
Vroom & Dreesmann was reorganized into Vendex in 1972 and Vendex International in 1982.[3] In 1987, the in-house restaurant chain La Place was opened. In 1988, Anton Dreesman was replaced as the company's CEO with Abraham Verhoef.[4][5] In 1999, Vendex merged with Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer (KBB), the parent company of retail chains De Bijenkorf and Hema, and was renamed into Vendex KBB.[6] It also inherited KBB's royal designation "Koninklijk".[7]
In 2004, Vendex KBB was sold to a new investor group that included KKR, Alpinvest and Permira. It lost its royal designation as a result, yet was allowed to keep the K in its name.[7] In 2005, Vendex KBB changed its name into Maxeda.
V&D, downfall and bankruptcy, 2007–2015
Closed and empty V&D in Utrecht after bankruptcy.
In 2007, Vroom & Dreesmann was rebranded into V&D[1] and the red, white and blue logo was replaced with a black logo. In 2008, the vd.nl website was launched. From 2010 to 2015, V&D was a subsidiary of Sun Capital Partners.
In February 2015, it was unclear whether V&D would continue to exist.[8] Among the reasons mentioned for its demise:
The rise of the internet with online shopping and the late start of V&D e-commerce.
Cheaper brick and mortar stores such as the Swedish H&M and IrishPrimark that competed successfully for V&D's market share.[3]
Lacking clear identity,[9] in comparison with these affordable stores and the more exclusive ones, such as De Bijenkorf.[3]
The sale of the V&D real estate by the joint British-American ownership before Sun Capital, possibly increasing the warehouse's operational costs.
After negotiations, real estate owners agreed to reduce the area and costs of the rental properties, employees agreed to a gradual pay cut, and the V&D owners agreed to inject capital, but not the amount needed. Eventually, this problem was also resolved. In mid-March 2015, the rent reduction in Den Bosch and Heerlen remained unresolved.[10] In May 2015, V&D kept working on reducing the rents and a new business plan, to be implemented in the short term, which aimed to make V&D profitable again in two years.
In December 2015, the firm was again under court protection for insolvency.[11][12] The website no longer sold articles.[11] V&D gift cards as well as air miles were no longer accepted for payment.[11] On 31 December 2015, V&D was declared bankrupt.[12][13] The appointed liquidators kept the department stores open, pending restructuring and takeover talks with interested parties.[13] On 26 January 2016, Supermarket chain Jumbo announced that it had acquired the subsidiary La Place.[14] Talks continued for selling the stores that focused in February on Roland Kahn's retailer CoolCat.[15] By 16 February, the negotiations for a takeover had broken down.[16][17][18] About 10,000 employees lost their jobs.[13]
Aftermath
Hudson's Bay, 2017–2019
In V&D's latter days, Canadian retail group Hudson's Bay Company negotiated with the landlords to acquire most of the company's premises without having an interest in the company itself.[19] In May 2016 Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) announced that it would take over up to 20 former V&D locations by 2017. HBC said the expansion would cost CAD $340 million and create 2,500 jobs in the stores and another 2,500 temporary construction jobs. The Dutch stores would operate under the "Hudson's Bay" and "Saks Off Fifth" brands.[20]
As of mid-2019, Hudson's Bay Company still operated 15 stores in the defunct Vroom & Dreesmann locations. On August 31, 2019, the company announced that all 15 of those stores would close by year-end.[21][22]
The brand name V&D was bought by entrepreneurs Ronald van Zetten, Roland Kahn, and Jaco Scheffers.[23] In 2018 a web store with the V&D brand was opened.
LRG Online Ltd, 2025
Vroom & Dreesmann was acquired by LRG Online Ltd in 2025 with plans to relaunch V&D as a digital department store.
↑ Rijlaarsdam, Barbara; Van der Heijden, Teri (16 February 2016). "Overname V&D is mislukt"[V&D takeover has failed]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 February 2016.
↑ Hermanides, Elisa (12 February 2016). "Twee schakers in eindspel V&D"[Two chess players in endgame V&D]. Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 19 February 2016.
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