Hessing is probably the most famous Dutch car dealer. Filled with brands as Lamborghini, Maserati, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and even the curious Bugatti, their beautiful glass building along the A2 near Utrecht never fails to impress. What does fail to impress, is Hessing's financial state. The supercar-grocer appears to be in financial troubles. Center of the problem is an investment in expensive real estate that isn't pulling off very well.
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Frits Hessing, the director, has invested 10 million Euros of lended money into the development of Park Bloeyendael. As you might guess from the name, it will be a luxurious residential area. The houses would be priced from about 800.000 Euros up. That's about four new Bentleys per house, I‘m just saying. The thing is, neither the construction nor the sales are near expectations which brings, as you understand, quite some trouble along. The loan cannot be paid, and the bank, Alcredis, isn’t planning on helping.
Why won't they help? There are two reasons: 1. They're not obliged to. 2. Alcredis is owned by some Mr. Louwman. For those of you unfamiliar with him: he’s Hessing’s competitor, namely the importer of other expensive car brands and also the Dutch importer for Toyota. They aren’t exactly the best friends. Now tell me, don't you think that it’s S-T-U-P-I-D to get into financial debts with one of your rivals? I do, but apparently Mr. Hessing thought differently.
Bailiffs have confiscated all the cars, which implies that Hessing isn’t allowed to sell them. However, they will remain in the showroom. Hessing has until April next year to fulfill his debt. The odds are, if Hessing fails to refund the loan, his company will be declared bankrupt. Let us all pray that it won’t get that bad, and that we'll still be able to catch a glimpse of all that beauty situated along the A2 next year.
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