Sportscheck has to look for a new location in downtown Munich. No agreement could be reached with the previous landlord of the approximately 10,000 square meter flagship store in the pedestrian zone opposite the Old Academy. The company announced on Friday that negotiations with Bayerische Hausbau had failed. “The owner of the property on Neuhauser Strasse is not making any contribution to the restructuring of the traditional Munich sports retailer as part of the insolvency,” says the statement.
The employees were informed on Friday that the talks had failed. According to information from the SZ, 120 employees are affected. It was not announced exactly when the store would have to close. A spokeswoman for Sportscheck’s provisional insolvency administrator confirmed the information.
At the end of November 2023, Sportscheck filed an application to open insolvency proceedings due to insolvency. The previous owner, the Austrian Signa Holding owned by entrepreneur René Benko, had recently filed for insolvency itself.
Loud Textile industry Until recently, there were ongoing disputes about the amount of rent and the tenant’s special termination rights in the event of insolvency. In 2022, a press release put an end to speculation about a possible closure. Bayerische Hausbau declared in April 2022: “Germany’s largest inner-city sports store and at the same time largest Sportscheck branch is securing the attractive premises in Munich’s Joseph Pschorr Haus for the long term.” In real estate circles it is said that this meant a minimum term of ten years. The contractual relationship is now terminated. Sportscheck moved into the house in 2013 and, according to media reports, probably paid one of the highest retail rents in Germany.
Now Bayerische Hausbau announced on Friday: “It was with great regret that it had to be determined that there was no sufficient basis for the continuation of the tenancy agreement.” The company very much regrets the difficult situation at Sportscheck and hopes that viable solutions can be found for the employees.
For its part, Sportscheck emphasized that the Munich location was “not up for grabs”. The company is intensively looking for potential new sales areas in downtown Munich. The project is being supported in ongoing discussions with potential investors. According to the provisional insolvency administrator Axel Bierbach from the law firm Müller-Heydenreich Bierbach & Colleagues, there are still numerous interested parties, including traders and financial investors from home and abroad. Sportscheck has 34 branches nationwide and an annual turnover of around 350 million euros.