The big crowds in department stores are long history. Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof has been struggling to survive for years, but the red pencil is being pulled out again. Many branches are threatened with closure. But there is a ray of hope: Investor Markus Schön. He still believes in the concept – and wants to save a number of branches.
Germany’s last large department store group, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, is again seeking rescue in protective shield proceedings. The responsible insolvency administrator has already announced cuts and the prospect that only a hard core of the 131 department stores will remain. But there is a ray of hope: Investor Markus Schön. The managing director of the online retailer Buero.de has expressed an interest in 47 endangered branches in medium-sized cities and almost 6000 employees – for example in Bad Homburg, Fulda, Goslar and Wismar.
Schön is certain that strong brands are still being made in inner cities. For him, the protective shield procedure is therefore a unique opportunity. He is certain: “The less specialized you are, the easier it is to be replaced on the Internet, but with shop-in-shop concepts you can revitalize inner cities in medium-sized locations,” says Schön ntv.de. The takeover of some branches would bring digital and stationary sales channels together and create a future viability that would show Amazon and Ebay a German alternative.
According to company circles, the interest in acquiring certain locations has existed since the takeover by the Austrian investor René Benko. The first contacts fell asleep again. Concrete takeover decisions could therefore be made at very short notice, since one would not be starting from scratch. In the past few years, several thousand hours of work have gone into analyzing the houses in question.
Galeria had already gone through a protective shield procedure in 2020. At that time, many branches were already closed and several thousand employees lost their jobs. The Verdi union had assured on Tuesday that they wanted to fight for “every job”. According to Verdi, the Galeria board wants to close a third of the branches. A total of around 17,400 people work there.
