V&D, the Dutch department store chain which went bankrupt last year, will return to life as an online business.

Its brand name, domain names and intellectual property rights – although none of the 45 former stores – have been bought by three leading Dutch businessmen, reports NOS.

Ronald van Zetten, former chief executive of Hema, and CoolCat clothes store owners Roland Kahn and Jaco Scheffers bought the brand rights for an undisclosed sum.

Van Zetten, who will lead the new company, told NOS. ‘We are full of plans to make V&D a strong, healthy brand for all Dutch consumers again. At first online, but eventually perhaps once more on the Dutch streets.’

The three also bought V&D brands including Schoolcampus, Soho, Liv and Prijzencircus, and a spokesman said they will be in touch with the former business’s largest suppliers to get some of the old products on the internet, as soon as possible.

Talks to restart V&D failed in February this year and around 8,000 people lost their jobs at the 130-year-old business.

The name stands for Vroom en Dreesmann, surnames of the Amsterdam brothers-in-law Willem Vroom and Anton Dreesmann who joined their shop businesses to create the empire in 1887.