Bart Smit B.V. was a Dutch store-chain that specialised in

toys A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and ...

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

and

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

History

The chain started on 1 June 1967 as a small store in

Volendam Volendam () is a tourist town in the Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of Edam-Volendam, Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands, known for its streets, old fishing boats and the traditional clothing wor ...

. Bart Smit originally sold toys, household appliances and kitchenware. Later Bart Smit started focussing exclusively on toys. The name of the owner was Bart Smit, which is also the origin of the chain's name. Until 1995 the chain was known as "Speelgoedpaleis Bart Smit" (''Toy Palace Bart Smit''). In 1985 Bart Smit was acquired by

Blokker Holding Mirage Retail Group (formerly Blokker Holding) is a Dutch company that owns several chains of stores.

. In 1999 Bart Smit started the daughter company E-Plaza, specialising in computer games. In 1989 Bart Smit opened its first shop in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. In 2008 Bart Smit had 189 stores in the Netherlands, 51 in Belgium (of which 40 in

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

and 11 in

Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...

) and one in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. In 2017, Blokker Holding started converting all Bart Smit stores in the Netherlands to Intertoys stores. This took longer than expected as some stores were too close to existing Intertoys branches. The Belgian branches were sold to and renamed Maxi Toys. Blokker Holding sold Bart Smit, Toys XL and Intertoys to British investor Alteri in October 2017.{{cite web , url=https://www.limburger.nl/cnt/dmf20171012_00048792/intertoys-en-bart-smit-in-buitenlandse-handen, title=Intertoys en Bart Smit in buitenlandse handen, date= October 12, 2017, access-date= November 4, 2017, website=

De Limburger ''De Limburger'' is a Dutch newspaper covering the province of Limburg. The ''Limburgs Dagblad'' merged into ''De Limburger'' at the end 2017. Both newspapers were owned by Mediahuis. ''Dagblad De Limburger'', the previous name of ''De Limburger ...

External links

Official website

References

Companies based in Amsterdam Retail companies established in 1967 Retail companies disestablished in 2019 Toy retailers Retail companies of the Netherlands