HEMA (store)

The first HEMA opened in Amsterdam on 4 November 1926, set up by the owners of the luxury department store De Bijenkorf. Originally, as a price-point retailer at prime locations in town centers, goods were sold using standard prices (hence its name), 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 (there was a relatively high number because of the Jewish roots of the company) 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 2007 Lion Capital bought the chain from Maxeda. In 2010, standard pricing was reintroduced.[2] In 2015, HEMA was for the 8th time in a row the most indispensable brand in the Netherlands.[3][4]

Anno 2020 a potential sale of the business is on an agenda of Hema's owners. The most interest to acquire the business showed a Miami, Florida-based investment company Flacks Group and a consortium led by Amsterdam-based private equity firm Parcom Capital.[1] In October 2020 exclusive negotiations start with a 50/50 consortium of the Van Eerd Group and Parcom Capital. It is expected it would stop activities outside Europe.[5]

Inside a HEMA store

Since the 1990s, HEMA has also expanded into other countries.

HEMA branches by country:

Country	Number of stores	Since
Netherlands	545 (2018)	1926
Austria	5[6] (2019)	2018
Belgium	98[7](2020)	1984
France	70[8] (2020)	2009
Germany	20[9] (2020)	2002
Luxembourg	4[10] (2016)	2006
Qatar	3[6] (2019)	2018
Spain	8[11] (2020)	2014
United Arab Emirates	7[12] (2020)	2018
United Kingdom	9[13] (2020)	2014
Mexico	Online only[14] (2020)	2020

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.

HEMA store at London Stansted Airport

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.[15]

• Media related to HEMA at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website