Decathlon will eliminate all 132 remaining logistics jobs in Willebroek at the end of this year, but the reduction has actually been going on since 2020. “The lack of flexible regulations for night work certainly has something to do with this,” says Roel Gevaers, transport economist at the University of Antwerp.
Decathlon has had a distribution center in Willebroek since 2005. It will be closed at the end of this year, almost twenty years after its start-up. The dismantling took place in phases. Until 2020, Decathlon stores in Belgium and the Netherlands were supplied from Willebroek. In 2020, the supply of the Dutch stores moved to a distribution center in the Dutch city of Tilburg. Last year, the e-commerce of the Belgian stores also moved to the distribution center in Tilburg. If you order something on the Decathlon website in Belgium, it will be delivered from Tilburg and no longer from Willebroek. And at the end of this year, the supply of all Belgian Decathlon stores will also move to distribution centers in France and Germany, leaving no logistics in Willebroek.
“A more flexible arrangement regarding night work would now be especially good for Belgian companies that do e-commerce here, such as Schoenen Torfs”
Roel Gevaers
Economist
“As a result, trucks will in any case drive more kilometers to get their products to Belgian stores,” says Roel Gevaers, professor of transport economics at the University of Antwerp. “But that makes little difference to Decathlon. The products that the chain sells here are made in the Far East. For the last part of the chain, it no longer matters whether you have to make a trip from Belgium to Belgium or from Germany to Belgium. That is at most a few hundred extra kilometers out of a total of tens of thousands of kilometers.”
Roel Gevaers — © rr
Too late?
“The loss of jobs in Willebroek certainly also has to do with the lack of flexible regulations for night work in Belgium,” says Roel Gevaers. “If the Decathlon store in, say, Schelle places an order for products that urgently need to be replenished at 6 p.m., they can only start ordering them in Willebroek the next day. In Germany or France they can process that order the same evening, which means the products will be in stores faster the next day. Moreover, e-commerce had already disappeared in Willebroek, which meant that the economies of scale to supply the physical stores in Belgium were much smaller.”
Is it still worthwhile for politicians to relax the regulations regarding night work? “The benefits will be limited because e-commerce jobs have already been created abroad. A more flexible arrangement would now be especially good for Belgian companies that do e-commerce here, such as Schoenen Torfs,” says Roel Gevaers.
No damage
And should Willebroek, which employs many hundreds of people in e-commerce, now despair due to the departure of Decathlon? “Certainly not,” says Roel Gevaers. “Just because one company leaves does not mean that Willebroek loses its assets, such as its favorable geographical location. There will be a successor to Decathlon soon.”
(cwil)
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