The insolvent department store group Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is fighting for its future – 16 of the 92 branches will be closed. Now it is clear which department stores are involved. Around 1,400 employees are affected.
At the beginning of January, the retail chain filed for insolvency – now it is clear: Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is closing 16 of its 92 remaining branches as part of the insolvency plan. In the morning, the company presented the list of locations to be closed and informed the approximately 1,400 employees affected by the measure.
According to the company’s press release, the following department stores will be closed:
- augsburg
- Berlin Ringcenter
- Berlin-Spandau
- Berlin Tempelhof
- Chemnitz
- Eat
- Cologne Breite Straße
- Leonberg
- Mainz
- Mannheim
- Oldenburg
- Potsdam
- Regensburg Neupfarrplatz
- Trier Fleischstrasse
- Wesel
- Würzburg
Profitability as Decision criterion
“Each of the branches to be continued must have the potential to achieve the necessary profitability today or in the foreseeable future,” Galeria continues. “In addition to the socio-demographic conditions of the locations, the rent level also plays a central role in this assessment,” it says in the explanation.
“We negotiated hard to maintain each individual branch. Not only in the interests of the employees, but also with a view to lively city centers,” said insolvency administrator Stefan Denkhaus.
Social plan for employees
With regard to the employees in the department stores that will be closed, the group has worked out a “socially acceptable solution” with social partners, Denkhaus continued.
In a social plan decided on Friday, among other things, it was stipulated. that everyone affected can switch to a transfer company for eight months in order to orient themselves on the job market. “In addition, the previous service center in Essen will be moving to a new location in the Düsseldorf Schadowstrasse branch in the future,” the statement said.
Consortium wants to take over department stores
The January filing is the department store group’s third bankruptcy in three and a half years. At the time, Galeria boss Olivier Van den Bossche cited, among other things, the insolvencies of the Signa Group of the previous owner René Benko as the reason for the difficult situation. Their imbalance had an immediate impact. As a result of Benko’s last insolvency, promised financial resources for the restructuring of the department store chain were no longer available.
In January, van den Bossche and Denkhaus announced the search for a new owner and the preservation of Galeria as their goals. The company then said it negotiated with several potential investors. It has been known since the beginning of April that a consortium made up of the US investment company NRDC and entrepreneur Bernd Beetz’s company BB Kapital SA wants to take over the department store chain.