It was in 2000 that XXL Sport and Vildmark was founded by the Norwegian Øivind Tidemandsen and now the department store chain has over 80 stores located in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Austria and Denmark.
There are currently 30 stores on Swedish soil, but now three of them will be moved.
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That’s why the XXL stores are moving
More specifically, it is the XXL department stores Uppsala, Västerås and Växjö that will be moved. The reason is, according to the company, increased rents and reduced purchasing power.
– These are three important places for us where we neither want to abandon our customers nor have to cut down on the number of employees and the jobs we create locally. However, the system that we have for renting right now is dysfunctional and will become one of our – and the entire industry’s – most important future issues. Rent increases of almost 20 percent in the middle of a recession feel out of touch, almost unreal, and will lead to large parts of the trading places being empty – especially in small and medium-sized cities, says Anders LindblomSwedish head of XXL, in a press release.
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Anders Lindblom. Photo: Press image/XXL
But the department stores in Uppsala, Västerås and Växjö are not moving far. According to the company, it is about “a few hundred meters”, for smaller premises.
Anders Lindblom’s hope is that no more XXL stores will have to move and change premises.
– But it is not possible to rule out more moves, as the situation is today, he notes the press release.
The property owner: “Did not discuss the rent with us”
Jan Björkwho is the CEO of Trophi, which owns one of the properties that XXL is now abandoning, believes, however, that there must be other reasons for the department store chain to leave.
– They haven’t discussed the rent with us anyway, he says Market and continues:
– In addition to that, I do not think that our rent levels are unreasonably high.
In writing states Jan Christian Thommesenwho is communications director at XXL, told Market that it is not the intention to single out any actors, but that they want to highlight a larger problem.
“However, our statement now is not aimed at individual landlords, but shines a light on an industry problem linked to index regulation of rents.”
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