Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The Dutch family group Blokker Holding has announced a major restructuring of its retail formulae for household goods chains Blokker and Marskramer resulting in the loss of 1,900 full-time jobs over the next two years. Jobs will be lost among retail staff in around 100 Blokker stores (1,160 jobs) and 100 Marskramer stores (650 jobs) which are to be closed, as well as among warehousing staff in a distribution facility in Mijdrecht (West Netherlands) (90 jobs) which will also be closed. The logistics will be outsourced.
Blokker Holding has experienced enduring losses since 2014, purportedly having responded too late to competition from low-cost chains such as Action and e-commerce. Despite the efforts to modernise its original retail formula Blokker in 2016, restructuring among its formulae Blokker, Xenos, and Cook&Co, and restructuring among its Blokker stores in Belgium, it has now decided not only to more extensively restructure, but also to sell all its formulae except Blokker. The formulae up for sale consisting of Leen Bakker, Intertoys, Maxi Toys, Xenos and Big Bazar, employ nearly 13,500 persons and Blokker Holding hopes to sell them intact, although whether this can be achieved is uncertain at the moment.
The unions have emphasised the far-reaching consequences for those losing their jobs and disappointment at the failure of Blokker Holding's earlier efforts to improve business. A redundancy plan was already in place because of earlier restructuring and is valid until 1 June 2018.
Blokker was founded in 1896 and became a multinational mainly through acquisitions, with seven retail formulae in eight countries employing some 21,000 people by early 2017.
Eurofound (2017), Blokker Holding, Closure in Netherlands, factsheet number 90995, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/90995.
Eurofound’s ERM restructuring legislation database offers an overview of key restructuring-related regulations in the EU Member States and Norway. Its content is continuously updated to reflect any changes made by national legislators in response to, for instance, policy shifts, legal...
Can Europe still achieve its ambitions for battery manufacturing? To answer this, the article looks at data from Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor and explores what recent large-scale restructuring events reveal about the state of play in the EU battery sector.
This working paper offers a comprehensive methodological overview of the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) databases. Even though the methodology has not changed over time, new categories have been added, and the way it has been used by researchers and policymakers...
This Eurofound research paper explores key trends in restructuring in recent years, highlighting the companies that announced the largest job losses and job gains in the EU. It builds on an analysis of company announcements recorded in Eurofound’s European Restructuring...
In 2023, thousands of workers in big tech lost their jobs. Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce had been considered to offer good and secure jobs up to this point. Giants of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector,...
In 2024, the automotive sector in the EU came to the fore in public and policy discussions. The focus was on the slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) sales, rising global competition, belated investments in new technologies, and the potential closure...
