V&D wants four month rent holiday on all its department stores

Department store group V&D is in such acute financial trouble it has asked all its landlords for a four month rent holiday, the Volkskrant says on Monday.

V&D operates 63 stores nationwide and has a presence in most major urban centres.

Earlier this month, V&D said it wanted all staff to accept a pay cut of nearly 6% and that it would be renegotiating rental contracts because of its financial situation.

The Volkskrant has a copy of the letter sent by the company to its landlords in which V&D asks for a rent holiday to run until May. In addition, the company wants rents to be reduced permanently to between 10% and 7% of turnover.

Nechemja de Bruijn of property management company IEF Capital which owns the V&D properties in Amsterdam, The Hague, Nijmegen, Groningen, Utrecht, Maastricht and Alkmaar told the Volkskrant talks would take place in the very short term.

‘The properties which V&D rents from us are in exceptional locations and there is continual interest from national and international retailers,’ De Bruijn said.

Stripped

Jos van de Mortel of property group Metroprop, which owns the Heerlen and Sittard locations, says he finds it strange that landlords are being asked to give up more than the staff. ‘This has never happened before,’ he said.

Van de Mortel says the department store group has been ‘stripped’ since being taken over by private equity companies.

The Volkskrant says landlords are in a difficult position because new high street players such as Primark and Action will not pay the same high rents as V&D. However, if V&D can force down the rents it pays, other retailers may take the same steps.