It was fun, says the Blokker family

Little by little, the Blokker family moved away from their own business. She first left the daily direction to strangers, then the family left the supervisory board. And now, it's time to move on to the next logical step: the Blokkers no longer want to own it.

Van Ab Blokker (73) and Els Blokker (71), the two owners of the eponymous chain of houses, are allowed to sell the family business from 1896. The President of the Commission, Michiel Witteveen, phoned the phone after reporting Het Financieele Dagblad .

Last summer, Witteveen stated in NRC that the family "believes in it longer". In fact, without the family, Blokker would no longer exist, given the poor results, he said. "A bank had said a long time ago: very nice, but where are our titles? We do not do that, let's get out of here!"

Now, the family wants to give up its trade, with about five hundred and fifty shops in the Netherlands and Belgium, provided that a buyer wants it. A few years ago, it was unthinkable.

A family member at the helm

The Blokker Holding company was and should remain a family business run by a family member. This is perhaps the most important wish of Jaap Blokker if he is seriously ill in 2011 and does not have much time to live. With his younger brother Ab, he has been at the helm of the company for over 35 years and has expanded the empire with distribution chains such as Xenos, Leen Bakker, Intertoys and Big Bazaar. Before that, their father was the boss and still their grandfather. Jaap believes that the family character is "of the utmost importance," he writes in the latest annual report that he signs.

Although his own children have neither the capacity nor the ambition, his wish is granted: at the request of the nephew, Roland Palmer assumes the direction. Palmer, about thirty years old, is the son of the sister of Jaap and Ab. He grew up in England and works as a consultant. Palmer promises his uncle that he will run Blokker Holding for at least thirty years. "Uncle Jaap gave me the witness so that I could pass it on to the fifth generation later," he writes confidently in his first annual report.

This wish does not come true. With Ab, his other uncle, Palmer can not hear much better. While Blokker's results go backwards and Palmer wants to innovate, Ab brakes. This leads to a power struggle that paralyzes the company, precisely in the years of crisis, when many retail businesses fall or find themselves in trouble. Initially, the young leading man wins a major battle when Ab swaps the board of directors against the board of trustees in 2013, but two years later, Palmer is sacked – by his own uncle and other directors. The direction is in the hands of a stranger.

Read also the reenactment of the struggle for power within the usually closed family business: Blokker, a family drama

For the stability of a family business, it is advantageous as a family member an unknown manager, responsible. With a brother, a son or a nephew at the helm, homeowners remain far more involved in the business: it is less obvious to sell a business in which a parent puts his soul and his salvation to good use. As soon as a stranger takes the lead, the family becomes more distant owner. Emotions stand in the way of a sale.

That's exactly what's happening at Blokker. Progressively alienates the family business. In 2017, he also withdraws from the Supervisory Board and is no more than a shareholder. Although he chose it himself, this position sometimes turns out to be frustrating after making the decisions for decades. If Blokker's drivers do things that he is absolutely opposed to – for example, they want to attack China's purchases dramatically – let him know. As an owner, however, his power is limited. In a letter to China's business relations, he notes with dismay: "As a shareholder of a company of this size, I have little to say."

Read also: How Ab Blokker saw the work of his life collapse

philanthropist

Els Blokker, the widow of Jaap, is moving further and further away from society. In the past, she always accompanied her husband at company parties. If an employee had a baby, she went on a maternity visit. She was also regularly found at the Laren headquarters, a few steps from the house where she lived with Jaap.

After the death of her husband, Els's involvement has greatly diminished. She is rarely seen at the new headquarters in Amsterdam. Blokker has become something for her, according to insiders, Els considers it rationally. Of course, she would have liked her husband's legacy to be honored, but she's not a philanthropist who likes to keep hundreds of millions of people in the business without improving her bottom line.

After only decades of profit, losses have risen sharply in recent years, from 20 million euros in 2014 to 344 million last year. The head of the company decided in 2017 – with the consent of Ab and Els – to dismantle the empire. Exactly what Jaap Blokker always wanted to prevent. Because, as Jaap wrote in the 2001 annual report, the sale of business units of people also sold "people and emotions". Years later and in other circumstances, it happens anyway. The family would only keep Blokker stores, it was announced. A year and a half later, Ab and Els decided that it was fine: they also left Blokker.

Is the family also ready to run stores? Not that. Ab and Els have another company, separate from Blokker Holding: Casa. This chain of stores, which sells items for the house, is not in the window, says the president of the commissioner Michiel Witteveen on the phone. The Casa of Belgian origin, which already had 500 stores in eight European countries, is already installed in the Netherlands this spring. Despite the loss of Casa, the family wants to invest heavily in these stores. The plan is to convert 110 Dutch Xenos stores into Casa stores. The counter now has 34. Casa Ab is actively involved: it continues to make purchasing trips to China.

See also: Blokker's new competitor: Casa

If the family finds a buyer for Blokker, it is no longer a family business. Although? In the wildest scenario, it is not an investment company or competitor who buys Blokker, but cousin Roland Palmer, who was fired in 2015. Young and ambitious, he was determined to succeed in the company of his favorite uncle. After he left, we learned that he would take Blokker if he had any opportunity. In this way, he could always fulfill the promise made to his uncle Jaap.

How serious is this option? After leaving Blokker Holding, Palmer found a new job: he heads the Chinese subsidiary of the Chinese group Alibaba in Benelux, one of the fastest growing Internet companies in the world. Money should not be the problem, since his mother owns one-third of the family's real estate. It is possible that the former son of Blokker, like his uncle and aunt, drove too far from Blokker, but he wants to save the honor of the family, that is his luck.