Press release: Coco & Sebas takes over sixteen Leonidas locations

Acquisition offers opportunity to grow into the largest premium retail chocolate brand in the Netherlands

The Brabant premium chocolate brand Coco & Sebas has reached an agreement with the receiver of Handelsonderneming Min BV on the restart of the majority of the Leonidas stores it operates and the distribution activities in Roosendaal. This concerns a restart of at least sixteen of a total of twenty Leonidas stores, which are located at Schiphol, four major NS stations and in The Mall of The Netherlands, and in the city centres of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Haarlem, Nijmegen and Eindhoven. The head office and the distribution activities are part of this takeover. Most former Leonidas employees will be offered a new employment contract.

The relaunch of the former Leonidas stores will take shape under the Coco & Sebas store formula and fits in seamlessly with its expansion plans. Coco & Sebas was founded in 2017 and has been the fastest growing premium chocolate brand in the Netherlands over the past five years. “This acquisition is an excellent opportunity to accelerate our strong growth and thus become the largest premium retail chocolate brand in the Netherlands in one fell swoop,” says Remy Rombouts, co-owner and founder of Coco & Sebas.

Special milestone

Coco & Sebas opened four new stores in 2022. The successful chocolate concept of Coco & Sebas has been positively received everywhere and the brand has a large circle of loyal customers. Roger Scheeren, CEO of Coco & Sebas: “The restart of the Leonidas stores under the Coco & Sebas formula is a special milestone and accelerates the planned rollout of Coco & Sebas in the Netherlands. We are also very pleased that we can maintain the jobs of the vast majority of employees.”

Curator Bart van Logtestijn of Rasser's lawyers in Breda also welcomes the fact that the takeover makes a restart possible for most of Min BV's activities. "It is of course very regrettable when a family business like Min BV - which has existed for over fifty years - goes bankrupt. This restart is therefore a huge boost for the Min family and its employees. I consider this to be the best possible outcome and have great confidence in the future of these activities under the flag of Coco & Sebas."

All acquired Leonidas branches will be converted into Coco & Sebas stores in the coming weeks. This conversion operation is expected to be completed in April.

About Coco & Sebas

Coco & Sebas, founded in 2017, operates eight brand stores in premium A1 locations across the Netherlands and Belgium. It currently has Coco & Sebas stores in Amsterdam (Kalverstraat), Amstelveen (Stadshart), Utrecht (Hoog Catharijne), Delft (Jacob Gerritstraat), Den Bosch (Vughterstraat), Breda (Eindstraat), Maastricht (Wolfstraat) and Knokke (B)(Lippenslaan). Four new stores will open in 2022. The ambition is to significantly expand the number of stores in the coming years. In addition to its physical
stores, Coco & Sebas offers customers a complete omnichannel experience through its fast-growing online channel www.cocosebas.nl.
The Coco & Sebas brand is characterized by high pastry quality chocolate in modern luxury gift packaging for affordable prices. Based on the brand promise 'Sparkle up your Day', 120 employees work every day with great dedication to convey a 'sparkle' to a weekly growing number of guests and customers. The unique chocolate of Coco & Sebas is not only available through its own stores and webshop, but can also be found at a growing group of resellers, such as de Bijenkorf, World of Delights (Schiphol), Holland Casino, Topgeschenken.nl and Metro Germany (national distribution).

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