Ixina returns to Lier with its 63rd Belgian store

Ixina is returning to Lier, Belgium, after six years. Serge Vandriessche and Erwin Fierens will open a kitchen showroom at Donk 54/1, near Antwerpsesteenweg, on Thursday 29 October 2026. The new branch will be the chain’s 63rd Belgian store. The two entrepreneurs have known each other for years through Guco Lier basketball club and are putting local connections at the heart of their joint venture.

A return led by local entrepreneurs

The opening follows Ixina’s search for entrepreneurs to reopen a store in Lier. Vandriessche, chairman of Guco Lier, saw an opportunity and brought Fierens, the basketball club’s treasurer, into the project. Their partnership now extends beyond sport into business.

The store will occupy the former premises of bed retailer Sleeplife. Heytens and Vanden Borre also operate on the same site, placing the returning Ixina store alongside other home furnishing retailers.

Around 200 guests are expected at the opening celebration. Nils Proost, chef at Lier’s Michelin-starred restaurant Neon, will provide the canapés. The entrepreneurs have therefore chosen a local partner for the launch too, offering an early, visible example of the connection with Lier they want their store to embody.

A clear division of responsibilities

Vandriessche and Fierens both bring many years of entrepreneurial experience. They will divide responsibilities at the new kitchen showroom: Vandriessche will focus mainly on customer relations and marketing, while Fierens will handle administration and bookkeeping.

In 1991, Fierens co-founded Apart Audio, a company specialising in professional sound systems. Although that background differs from kitchen retailing, his role at Ixina Lier will centre on supporting the business operations. Vandriessche will take on the more customer-facing and commercial duties.

The pair will also be supported by an employee who previously worked at another Ixina branch. Alongside the founders’ business experience, the team will therefore include someone who already knows the retail concept from the inside.

For those interested in the Belgian franchise market, this combination is particularly relevant: two entrepreneurs who already work together, an explicit division of day-to-day responsibilities and an employee with experience of the same franchise concept. The Lier project is therefore not just about a new location, but also about assembling the team that will run it.

Putting local connections into practice

Their ties to Lier extend beyond their involvement with Guco. The entrepreneurs also intend to work with independent kitchen fitters from Lier and the surrounding area. This remains a plan: neither the fitters involved nor the number of partnerships has been announced.

That approach reflects Ixina’s own emphasis on the new entrepreneurs’ backgrounds. In coverage by business news outlet Made in, Fiona Amoroso, operational marketing manager at Ixina BeLux, describes their combination of a strong local network and years of business experience as an asset.

The opening illustrates the practical forms that local connections can take: existing relationships through a club, collaboration with a local chef and plans to use kitchen fitters from the surrounding area. These are different elements of the same store project, rather than evidence of its future commercial performance.

Expanding the network to get closer to customers

The Lier opening brings Ixina’s Belgian network to 63 stores. The chain intends to expand further, with the aim of having a store within ten kilometres of its customers. Its return to Lier fits that ambition to be closer to customers.

That distance is a target, not a claim that the Belgian network already provides such coverage everywhere. For Lier, however, the change is tangible: after a six-year absence, Ixina will once again have a store in the town, run by two entrepreneurs with an established local network.

Practical takeaway: for anyone planning to open a franchise with a business partner, this project highlights the importance of clearly defined roles. Agree in advance who will handle customers and marketing, who will manage administration and what additional experience the store team will need.