The final liquidation sale of Belgian interior design chain Casa began on Monday 14 April, with prices being brought down to 50% off.
The ten best performing Casa branches in the country will open from 10:00 to 16:00 this week with large discounts. The liquidation sales are opening in different cities on different days.
In Brussels, the sale will take place at the Ixelles and Waterloo stores on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 April. The branches in Ghent and Turnhout will also open on the same days.
On Monday, sales began in Mechelen, Ostend, and Bruges on Monday (continuing on Tuesday), before going to Lier, Knokke, and Sint-Niklaas on Wednesday and Thursday.
Amid high demand, Mechelen's store attracted queues of hundreds of shoppers from 08:00. Some buyers arrived with suitcases. Groups of around fifteen people were granted access to the store at a time. Police barriers were set up outside to control the hundred meters queue, the Belga News Agency reported.
Major job losses
The bankruptcy comes following the court declaration in early March of 2025 as the company were unable to pay their debts last year. Over 540 job cuts are threatened nationwide.
In 2024, the company closed 45 shops in Belgium and abroad, according to VRT. Further threats are posed to some 2,500 jobs across 400 branches in Belgium and Europe. Over 3000 were employed worldwide by Casa according to a press release in 2024.
Customers are seen shopping at the liquidation sale at Casa Mechelen. Credit: Belga / Jonas Roosens
In France, the company has been placed under judicial re-organisation proceedings, during which they can form a recovery plan.
A Belgian-founded company
Founded in 1975, Casa was initially owned by the Dutch Blokker Family, later sold on to the Amsterdam-based Globitas group followed by Swedish-Lebanese businessman Ayad Al-Saffar.
In June of 2024, the business was sold to Dutch entrepreneur Frank Pruijn with Globitas holding onto a remaining 51% of the capital. The company went on to branch out to the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, Morocco, and even Aruba.
Customers are seen shopping at Casa Mechelen. Credit: Belga / Jonas Roosens
While the international branches will remain open, the 63 Belgian branches are closing alongside the distribution centre in Olen, according to a company press release.
Many of the products have been inventories in stores and deposits in Belgium, with administrators noting international interest in the stock from major companies. Items have been photographed and uploaded to a database.
Shifting consumer patterns
While data from the European Commission Scoreboard states that scams and misleading advertising practices persist for consumers, the closure of Casa is indicative of the broader trend of consumer habits turning increasingly towards online shopping.
CEO Vincent Nolf cites the rise of low-cost online retail giants such as Temu as a reason for difficulties faced by Casa and other companies in the housing retail sector. The percentage of online buyers in the EU increased almost 20% between 2014-2024.
Increasing labour costs in the European Union likely further contributed, with hourly labour costs increasing by almost 4.3% between 2023 and 2024.
