Akademik

   Enterprise with several chains of department stores for retail, fashion, do-it-yourself, electronics, and jewelry, located in seven European countries. Vendex KBB has been a subsidiary of the Consortium VDXK Acquisition BVsince 2004. The company is head quartered in Amsterdam. In 1999, Vendex merged with Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer (KBB). Vroom & Dreesmann (V&D) was founded in Amsterdam in 1887 by the Roman Catholic businessmen Wilhel mus Hermannus (“Willem”) Vroom (1850–1925) and Anton Caspar Rudolph Dreesmann (1854–1934) and became Vendex’s most impor tant department store. V&D has some 60 Dutch branches at the mo ment. KBB’s history goes back to 1870, when Simon Philip Goudsmit (1844–1889) started a shop in Amsterdam for manufacturesand fan cyworks. A third chain, De Bijenkorf, opened branches in 14 Dutch cities. The other large KBB department store was HEMA(a quite un known acronym of Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Ams terdam, Dutch Standard Pricing Company Amsterdam). HEMA started in 1926 and sold products only with fixed prices (in the begin ning 25 or 50 cents) until World WarII. Even small Dutch towns got their own HEMA, which was also present in Belgium and Germany in the last years. Some other Vendex KBB chains are Praxis (do-it yourself), Hunkemoller and M&S Mode (fashion), and the Dutch and Belgian branches of Dixons (electronics).