HEMA is a Dutch variety store-chain. It began operations as a variety store. The chain is characterized by relatively low pricing of generichousewares, which are mostly made by and for the chain itself, often with an original design. The current owner is Dutch billionaire Marcel Boekhoorn.
History
The first HEMA opened in Amsterdam on 4 November 1926, set up by the owners of the luxury department storeDe Bijenkorf. Originally, as a price-point retailer at prime locations in town centers, goods were sold using standard prices, with everything having a standard price of 10, 25 or 50 cents, and later also 75 and 100 cents. The relative economic boom in the Netherlands in the period 1900–1930 benefited HEMA. During World War II, a number of Jewish employees were murdered by the Nazis. This is remembered yearly by laying a wreath on 4 May, the Dutch Remembrance of the Dead, at the head office. After World War II, this model could not be sustained and the standard pricing system was abandoned. But a period of rapid expansion followed: now almost every town of any importance in the Netherlands has a HEMA. Locations carry a wide variety of goods, including clothing, food, bicycle equipment, gardening tools, and office supplies. In June 2007Lion Capital bought the chain from Maxeda. In 2010, standard pricing was reintroduced. In 2015, HEMA was for the 8th time in a row the most indispensable brand in the Netherlands.
Branches
Since the 1990s, HEMA has also expanded into other countries. HEMA branches by country:
Country
Number of stores
Since
545
1926
5
2018
98
1984
74
2009
21
2002
4
2006
3
2018
9
2014
5
2018
10
2014
Since 2009 HEMA has opened small versions of their stores in railway stations, at Schiphol Airport and in small villages in the Netherlands, as well as their first mini market. HEMA employed in excess of 10,000 workers at over 500 stores by March 2011. HEMA opened its 700th store on 14 December 2015 at Central Station in Utrecht. It is also the tenth store of the retail chain on a Dutch railway station. On 4 January 2014, HEMA's CEO Ronald van Zetten announced that it would branch out to Spain and the UK opening the first stores within six months as well further expanding in France. The first Spanish store opened on 3 April on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid. The first British store opened in the Victoria Place shopping centre, above Victoria station, in London on 12 June 2014, with a second store opening in Kingston and a third one in Bromley in the following months.
