End of the line for the Saturn chain in Belgium

German electronics group Media Markt - Saturn today announced its intentions to end the Saturn brand in Belgium, writes Retail Detail’s Gary Peeters. While most of the Saturn stores will continue under the Media Markt banner, the Antwerp branch will be closed. The changes mark the end of a six-year existence for Saturn in Belgium. The board of Media Markt-Saturn Belgium has confirmed the end of the two-brand strategy (Media Markt and Saturn) in Belgium, with the group preferring to focus on the further growth of the Media Markt brand.

The move does not really come as a big surprise: Saturn’s weak results had been putting the two-brand strategy under pressure for a while. The Saturn stores in Kortrijk, Bruges, Wilrijk and Liège will now be turned into Media Markt stores. Saturn's flagship store at the Meir in Antwerp will fare rather differently, as Media Markt already has a large store in the Century Center on the De Keyserlei, just down the street from the Meir. The board of Media Markt-Saturn Belgium has therefore declared today that it is their intention to close down the store in the Stadsfeestzaal. It hopes to accommodate the 54 employees in other stores, avoiding forced layoffs as much as possible. Saturn’s complicated organisational structure may however hamper the employees’ easy transition to other stores.  To compensate for the Antwerp store closing,  Media Markt "intends to open an additional 10 stores in the next three years, starting with Media Markt Mechelen in November. After that, a new store will be opened in Turnhout in the fall of 2014. That signifies a total investment of €30m and some 500 to 600 new job openings”, says CEO Sven Degezelle. Media Markt-Saturn Belgium had a turnover of €646m in 2012 and currently employs over 1,500 people.