Discussions with a number of candidates to take over the company or parts of it are still ongoing, curator Kees van de Meint told RTL News. According to him, the process is taking longer than planned because holidays got in the way. “I expect news at the end of this week,” he says, without wanting to go into details.
It was announced earlier that a number of offers had been submitted and that discussions were continuing. As a rule of thumb, a curator hopes to reach an agreement within six weeks, in part because UWV is still paying company employees for that period. After that, employees will leave the business if it does not go to a new owner.
“Just Perry”
The brands' employees have now also been informed of the situation. One possible scenario is that only Perry Sport finds a new owner, says an Aktiesport employee. However, it remains uncertain whether an agreement will ever be reached.
Sports Unlimited Retail went bankrupt last month. The company has a total of 54 stores across the three formats: Perry Sport, Aktiesport and Sprinter. The company employs 1,100 people, but several of these stores have already closed their doors, including the Aktiesport store in Utrecht. The city's Perry Sport branch is still open, but has announced it will close soon.
“Open until March”
It's not clear how many stores remain open. A well-attended liquidation sale took place at the Sprinter store in Hilversum on Sunday. The branch could not be reached by phone on Monday. There is also no registration in The Hague, Almere and Amsterdam. The business in Leiden remains open “until March,” says one employee.
After bankruptcy, building leases can be terminated, subject to a notice period. If a store is costing more money than it is generating, the store clerk will usually choose to close the business.
In 2016, Perry Sport and Aktiesport also collapsed. British sports retailer giant JD Sports has acquired 187 stores from the bankrupt company. The new owner has since closed approximately three-quarters of the stores and converted many of the remaining stores to the new formula: Sprinter.
Sports Unlimited Retail, which includes the brands, posted a loss of nearly 9 million euros in 2021 and had not done good business in previous years. According to the company, JD Sports stores in the Netherlands were not affected by the bankruptcy.
