Redundancy for a third of the employees at the Munich headquarters and apparently no longer a branch in the city: The reorganization of the insolvent sports retailer Sport Scheck has a significant impact on the company’s presence in the place where it was founded. This emerges from a press release that the company sent out on Wednesday.
In it, Sport Scheck gives figures for the first time about job cuts at the headquarters on Gmunder Straße in the Obersendling district: “From the summer onwards, 160 employees will still be employed there; 80 employees will have to be laid off.” All trainees could keep their jobs.
The staff cuts are “very hard for those affected,” says insolvency administrator Axel Bierbach. “However, such a clear cut is necessary in order to preserve the majority of Sport Scheck and to be able to position it successfully for the future.” The works council “worked very constructively on a solution”.
Sport Scheck was founded in Munich in 1946 by the entrepreneur Otto Scheck. The company most recently belonged to René Benko’s Signa Group, from where it slipped into bankruptcy. In March it was announced that the Italian sports retailer Cisalfa wanted to take over Sport Scheck and that the branch on Neuhauser Straße would be closed. Around 100 employees will lose their jobs as a result. But it was also said that the company was looking for a new location in Munich.
In the communication now sent, Sport Scheck announced that the Federal Cartel Office had approved the takeover by Cisalfa and that the creditors’ meeting would decide on the insolvency plan on April 29th. Cisalfa should then take over business operations in June.
Sport Scheck now reiterates that “the non-profitable branches in Munich, Augsburg, Bremen and the outlet in Unterhaching (…) would be closed as planned”, leaving 28 locations. There is no longer any talk of a possible new branch in Munich. Sport Scheck left unanswered on Wednesday a query as to whether this meant that there would no longer be a store in the city.
However, there will be a new opening: on May 2nd in Berlin-Schöneberg, on Tauentzienstrasse, directly opposite the Kadewe department store. With this 2,000 square meter branch, as in Bielefeld and Stuttgart, we want to “establish our new future retail concept” and bring “a new sports experience destination” to Berlin in time for the European Football Championship, explains CEO Matthis Rucker. However, as is also part of the announcement, Rucker will be leaving the company in the summer “after the successful completion of the restructuring.”