Insolvent department store group
Manager of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof fired
February 4, 2024, 12:26 p.m
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The major restructuring begins at Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof: “Yes, we are separating from individual managers,” says boss van den Bossche. It is also about making decentralized decisions. Insolvency administrator Denkhaus would like to sell the company “as a whole”.
According to a report, the insolvent department store group Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is sacking managers and thus thinning out the administrative apparatus. “Yes, we are separating from individual managers,” said Galeria boss Olivier van den Bossche to the news magazine “Spiegel”. “We had to see how many people we still needed in the headquarters.”
The department stores should therefore work more regionally in the future. “The offer in Bad Homburg may well differ from that in Aachen.” So far, decisions have been made at the headquarters in Essen. “If the manager of our branch on Munich’s Marienplatz with a turnover of more than 100 million euros wanted to replace a light bulb, he had to submit an application to the headquarters. We stopped that,” said van den Bossche. The managing directors of the flagship stores could now also negotiate with manufacturers of the merchandise themselves.
Galeria was once again in trouble as a result of the financial problems of its owner, the Austrian Signa Group. The chain operates 92 branches in Germany and claims to employ more than 15,000 people. The company had already gone through insolvency proceedings and received state aid from 2020 during the corona pandemic. In 2022 it needed further state aid, and a second insolvency procedure followed in 2023. In contrast to the previous proceedings, business has recently been going relatively well again.
At the beginning of January, the company filed for insolvency at the Essen district court and is now subordinate to the insolvency administrator Stefan Denkhaus. As he told “Spiegel”, Galeria has now stopped paying rent to Signa, which was criticized as excessive. According to Denkhaus, the company is “currently not paying” the rents for department store buildings owned by Signa. He is currently renegotiating it.
Contracts should be signed by April at the latest
Denkhaus would like to sell Galeria “as a whole”. When looking for a new investor, however, he is not necessarily concerned with the entire company with logistics, all employees and suppliers: “I am particularly concerned with the branch network,” said Denkhaus. You have to see what potential investors have in mind.
The sale of the insolvent department store group is expected to be completed within the next two to three months. “Our goal is to have the contracts signed by April at the latest,” Denkhaus told the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” on Thursday. The company had already announced the timetable for the search for a new owner on Wednesday. Interested parties can register their interest without obligation until February 11th. The deadline for binding offers ends on March 8th. The insolvency proceedings are scheduled to open at the beginning of April.