Forever 21 to close its Amsterdam flagship store

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Jan 5, 2018

American fast-fashion chain Forever 21 is closing its Amsterdam flagship store later this month.

The general manager of the store, Benjamin Colin, revealed the news on LinkedIn, citing "organisational changes" as the reason for the closure. According to his post, the store will shut towards the end of January. About 100 people will be affected by the shutdown.

"Our general manager Benjamin Colin did everything in his power to lead the Forever21 Amsterdam store to success," the retail team of the Kalverstraat store wrote in a letter posted to Colin's LinkedIn page. "Unfortunately, unforeseen external circumstances induced the closure of the store."

Forever 21 first entered the Dutch market in 2014 with the opening the 4500 m2 Amsterdam branch at Rokin, where it shares a building with Pull& Bear.  A year later a Rotterdam branch followed, which will remain open as of now.

In 2016 Forever 21 left the Belgian market after a six-year presence, closing its stores in Brussels and Antwerp. At the time, Belgian media cited high rents and declining online sales as the cause for departing the Belgian market.  

Both the European headquarters as well as the distribution center of Forever 21 are based in the Netherlands, in Breda and Bergen op Zoom respectively. The American fashion chain has more than 800 stores in 57 countries worldwide. The European web shop is still operational in both the Netherlands and Belgium.