More trouble on the high street: Blokker cuts more jobs

High street retail group Blokker is cutting 390 jobs nationwide just a year after it cut 440 jobs in a major reorganisation.

Blokker has nearly 600 stores in the Netherlands and last year began the process of overhauling many of them. The company has suffered strong competition from budget stores such as Action and online retailers.

Parent company Blokker Holding made a loss last year for the second year in a row and the previous revamp has failed to improve results at the household goods chain.

Blokker Holding also owns discount stores Xenos and Big Bazar and the Bart Smit and Intertoys toys group. In January, Xenos said it was cutting some 250 jobs and closing a handful of stores in an effort to improve its results,

Over the past few months, the V&D department store chain and Macintosh retail group have gone bust because of declining high street sales.