De Bijenkorf, along with the famous British department store Selfridges, fell into Thai hands. Insiders confirmed this told Bloomberg news agency after reports in the British media.

Central Group could not be reached for comment. De Bijenkorf was referring to Selfridges, which did not wish to comment. Selfridges is still owned by Canada’s Weston family. Selfridges has been trying to sell this for a long time.

UK, Ireland and Canada

Selfridges is famous for its department store of the same name. Four of these are in the UK, and the big shop in London is the most famous. The group also has stores in Ireland and Canada.

And in the Netherlands, Selfridges has owned Bijenkorf since 2011. It has seven branches in our country.

KaDeWe and Rinascente

Central Group is not very well known in the Netherlands, but it is the largest department store chain in Thailand. It also owns well-known department stores in Europe, such as KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) in Berlin and Rinascente department store in Italy.

In June it was announced that the Weston family was considering the sale of Selfridges. Then various media reported that an unknown bidder was willing to pay 4 billion pounds (4.6 billion euros) for the company.

Once together with HEMA and V&D

De Bijenkorf was listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange under the name KBB, which at that time also included HEMA. In the late 1990s, KBB was bought by, among others, Vendex, the company behind V&D.

Vendex KBB was then bought by a group of investors. Some parts went bankrupt, like V&D, others were sold, like Bijenkorf.

De Bijenkorf once had twelve stores, but five branches closed in 2013. The company wanted to focus more on wealthy customers.