Dramatic spring for Belgian clothing stores

Compared to the first three months of last year, fashion stores now sold 3 percent less. This was reported by De Tijd, Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg on Friday based on figures from the Belgian statistics office Statbel. Since 2022 – a record year because people returned to the shopping street after the pandemic – the volume sold has been decreasing continuously.

And it doesn’t look like the second quarter has brought any improvement. Statbel doesn’t have figures for the entire period yet, but in April the sales volume fell even more sharply, by 10.5 percent compared to the same month in 2023. That made it the worst April since 2008 and the biggest year-on-year drop since measurements began in 2006.

The number of fashion stores in Flanders has fallen by 22 percent over the past ten years to around 9,000 branches, according to data from the Locatus agency. Independent businesses and Belgian family chains are under pressure. E5, JBC and Cassis Paprika closed branches in recent years. The Bristol shoe store chain is flirting with bankruptcy and is in danger of disappearing after just under 100 years.

But the international chains are not spared either. The Belgian stores of Scotch & Soda and Esprit recently went bankrupt. H&M fell 15 percent on the stock exchange on Thursday morning after a profit warning.