Company – Karstadt and Kaufhof close to history?

Miguel Mullenbach, head of department store group Galleria Karstadt Kaufhof, has announced a new start to autumn, when the traditional names “Karnstadt” and “Kaufhof” can be dropped.

He told Handelsblatt that Galleria 2.0 will be relocated strategically at the end of October. Then three completely reconstructed demo branches will be offered in Frankfurt, Kassel and Kleve and a new online presence. In total, investments of around 600 million euros are planned in the medium term. According to the CEO, there will be three types of supermarkets in the future: “Weltstadthaus”, “regional magnet” and “local forum”. As many as 60 of the 131 homes will be completely rebuilt, the rest at least partially. Sales areas will be converted for service offerings, for example for urban citizen services, e-bike stations or parcel counters. It’s all about being networked with an app that customers can use to book deals from supermarket partners.

It is likely that the traditional brands Karstadt and Kaufhof will not play a role in the new concept. You want to be a branded company, Mullenbach said. According to “Handelsblatt”, this means appearing under the name Galeria, because the online store is already called “galeria.de”.

According to Mullenbach, the supermarket group has lost at least 1.8 billion euros in sales due to the lockdown in the pandemic. Therefore, the company is currently negotiating a second loan with the state. The closure was overcome with the first loan of 460 million euros.

This message was broadcast on 07/27/2021 on Deutschlandfunk.