Dutch shoe shop sales drop dramatically, bankruptcies soar

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Clothes and shoes sales plummeted in the second quarter of 2012 relative to the same period last year. Turnover realised by Dutch clothes and shoe shops also dropped dramatically according to Statistics Netherlands. The number of bankruptcies of clothes and shoe shops doubled in the second quarter compared to the last year’s second quarter.

In the second quarter of this year, shoes sales declined by 10 percent, clothes sales by 7 percent relative to the same period in 2011. The corresponding figures for the first quarter of 2012 were 8 and 3 percent respectively. The decline of the sales volume in the second quarter is unprecedented over the last eleven years. Consumers’ willingness to buy reached a low point in the second quarter of this year, which had a negative impact on the amount of articles sold in that period.

Most dramatic drop in sales shoe shops since 2001
Shoe shops sales declined substantially by 11 percent in the second quarter of this year, the sharpest decline since 2001. In the first quarter of 2012, turnover still improved by more than 8 percent relative to the first quarter of 2011. Clothes shops reported a turnover loss of nearly 5 percent in the second quarter versus turnover growth in the two preceding quarters.

Growing number of bankruptcies
The number of bankruptcies has soared since the last quarter of 2011. Until the fourth quarter of last year, an average of 15 clothes and shoe shops filed for bankruptcy each quarter. Bankruptcy figures doubled in the second quarter of 2012 relative to one year ago. In the period April-June 2012, the number of bankruptcies totalled 30. The majority were clothes shops.

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