Polare bookstore in bankruptcy
After receiving an extension for payment, chain bookstore Polare was officially declared bankrupt, announced the curator, Kees van de Meent Monday afternoon. The stores will remain open for now. The bankruptcy was a necessary requirement for the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) to pay overdue wages.
Employees are guaranteed to receive their wages for a maximum of 6 weeks, paid by UWV. The Polare stores closed all Dutch locations early February to facilitate a strategic reorganization. Although the supplier stopped deliveries the stores reopened as it is easier to sell stores that are open. The stores are for sale separately or in clusters, according to the curator. Polare was formed by the merge of Selexyz and De Slegte, two bookstores that were performing poorly and were bought by an investment company. The Polare stores in Maastricht, Tilburg, The Hague, Groningen, Zwolle, Den Bosch, and Nijmegen already struck the interest of potential buyers. Five employees of the Rotterdam Polare bookstore started a crowd funding project to attempt a restart of their store as the Donner store it used to be. They need to bring together half a million euros from customers and investors to keep the store going as a coöperation. 20 euro shares are sold to stimulate the ties with the store.
