Toy chain Intertoys is assured of sufficient capital in the coming years. The sister company of household chain Blokker was recently able to take out a new credit line with Rabobank, Intertoys announced on Wednesday. Earlier this year, it emerged that both store chains of the Mirage Retail Group urgently needed a new financier, because the previous credit line expired “early 2024”.
While Blokker is still working on attracting a new lender, Intertoys has now succeeded. Financial CEO Jan Nap says in a written response that he is pleased that the chain has reached an agreement with a “reliable partner” such as Rabobank. According to him, the new credit line allows Intertoys “to accelerate our growth plans.”
Intertoys can use the loan for two purposes. Primarily for working capital, such as for purchasing stocks that will only be delivered later in the year. In addition, the credit also amply covers the financing of the business plans until 2026. As a result, Intertoys is now able to bring forward plans for subsequent years, according to Nap.
The financial CEO is referring, among other things, to closing and merging stores that are less profitable, expanding existing stores in larger cities and opening new branches in regions where the toy chain is hardly present. Intertoys has more than two hundred stores and sells almost 30 percent of all toys in the Netherlands.
The fact that Intertoys can now also turn to a bank for its financing, and not only from investors specialized in risky investments, says a lot about how much the chain's results have improved. Five years ago the company was declared bankrupt after persistent losses. The chain then made a new start, with fewer stores, and joined the Mirage group. Since then, both turnover and profit have continued to increase every year.
In the last full financial year, which ended at the end of January, turnover increased by 9 percent to 208 million euros, Intertoys also announced on Wednesday. This meant that the chain grew much faster than the Dutch toy sector as a whole. Profit increased by 9 percent to 12.4 million euros. The official figures therefore do not differ much from the provisional figures that parent company Mirage already shared in January.
Funding shortage
Much more difficult is the search by Blokker, the other large retail chain under the Mirage flag. The household chain has been loss-making for years – with the exception of one year. The results there are also improving: last financial year, Blokker recorded a negative result of 2 million. A year earlier that was still a minus of 11 million. Last year's turnover at 344 million was virtually the same as in 2022.
At the same time, the need at Blokker is much greater than that at Intertoys: without access to credit, the continued existence of the chain is at risk. In recent years, Blokker has been able to rely on a credit line from the British venture investor Hilco. But last month it emerged that he had been refusing to invest money in the company for months. As a result, Blokker was faced with an “acute financing shortage” at the end of January.
Blokker decided to file summary proceedings, but lost. According to the judge, it was not clear enough whether the requested amount was sufficient to close the gaps. Moreover, according to the judge, it was “very questionable” whether the chain would be able to pay off the millions again. In order to continue, Blokker decided to request a temporary deferral of VAT payment.
Blokker is receiving help from consultancy firm Ernst & Young in attracting a new lender. Mirage CEO Ynse Stapert has always been hopeful about that search. This is now coming to an end: Stapert expects to be able to provide clarity before the end of next week.
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