After bankruptcy last year
Peek & Cloppenburg reacts to imbalances
February 11, 2024, 1:43 p.m
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Last year, Germany’s largest fashion retailer had to file for bankruptcy – and could then reorganize itself under self-administration. However, Peek & Cloppenburg still has a need for action. Managing director Freude now reveals his plans.
Germany’s largest fashion retailer, Peek & Cloppenburg KG Düsseldorf, will reduce the space in some of its 69 locations nationwide. The company’s managing director, Thomas Freude, said this in an interview with the “Rheinische Post”. “There is a need for action in some of our fashion houses,” said Freude. “There will be ‘mixed-use concepts’, with hotels or offices in the same building.” We are currently in “intensive communication” with the landlords and the process is still ongoing.
Peek & Cloppenburg had to file for bankruptcy in March 2023 and has restructured itself under self-administration. At the beginning of October, Peek & Cloppenburg was able to end the protective shield proceedings. Freude cited the ongoing loss-making online business as a central reason for the company’s financial difficulties: “The digital growth fantasies were too big. We are now back on the way to reaching a black zero.” The share of online trading in total sales at Peek & Clopenburg currently accounts for ten percent and should continue to be no more than 15 percent, said Freude. “We are growing moderately.”
New locations planned in Germany
In brick-and-mortar retail, Peek & Cloppenburg will open “at least two more locations in Germany this year,” said Freude. “One will be in the Paunsdorf Center in Leipzig, the other we are still negotiating.”
They also want to increase sales in existing branches by offering fewer discounted goods. “We will avoid the discount battles,” continued Freude. “In the future, we will only offer discounts on special items at the end of a season in order to clear up the inventory. But we will no longer have blanket discounts on the entire range. That has been an undesirable development for us in recent years.”
At the same time, Freude emphasized that despite the renovation, the company had managed not to close a single fashion store or lay off employees there – in contrast to the Düsseldorf administration, where one in four had to leave. “We said: This workforce shows their faces on the sales floor for the company every day – and now we stand by them,” said Freude.