Finally some good news from the retail sector: The German fashion giant Peek & Cloppenburg is expanding – including in smaller cities than before. On Thursday, sales manager Neofit Vasilev opened the 14th Austrian branch in Gmunden in the Salzkammergut, and almost 25 jobs were created.
The new location is 2,300 square meters in size and is therefore significantly smaller than other Peek & Cloppenburg (P&C) stores such as the one on Vienna’s Kärntner Straße with almost 12,000 square meters. Sales manager Vasilev: “Finally there is good news again, after all the bad news we hear from the clothing trade. We have a modern ambience here for our customers in the Salzkammergut!” But P&C – the company employs around 1,400 people – has even bigger plans: “We are expanding at a rapid pace. In autumn/winter we will open another branch in Graz, in the Citypark, with just over 3000 square meters. We see further opportunities for new branches, for example in district capitals. And from Vienna we are also planning to enter the market in Italy, Milan and Bolzano this year.” In Austria, Vasilev wants Peek & Cloppenburg to be among the top three points with the mix of his own brands such as Christian Berg, Jakes and McNeal and well-known names such as Hugo Boss, adidas or Nike. Vasilev: “We have 160 brands in Gmunden alone. In many shopping centers we are by far the most successful retailer in terms of sales. In the entire Austrian textile trade, we are certainly in the top 3, if not even stronger.” The big wave of price increases is over. When it comes to prices, P&C “could not escape the general inflation. But the price pressure is easing significantly in the new collections, which means we have the wave behind us,” says Vasilev. The manager also sees the strong wage increases from the last collective agreement negotiations as positive: “It’s a burden on us like the other retailers, but we don’t think about it in such a short term. In the long term, this means more purchasing power, and if people have more money, they can also spend more on clothing.” Admittedly, the German P&C parent based in Düsseldorf had to go through a difficult time last year: it had slipped into economic difficulties. Vasilev: “We successfully completed the insolvency proceedings on our own responsibility within six months and it was one of the fastest proceedings ever. We didn’t have to close a single store. We are now represented in 16 European countries, have 160 sales outlets and 16,000 employees!”
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