Galeria is planning a new beginning: In addition to the name, the product range will change and new investments and opening times will attract more customers.
The ailing department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof wants to take further steps towards realignment with Sunday shopping, investments and restructuring within the department stores. This is reported by “Spiegel”, citing the environment of the investor consortium. It was also announced on Tuesday that the chain was planning a name change and would only be called Galeria in the future. Here you can read more about it.
The new idea: In the future, every department store could open once a month on a Sunday and thus both increase its own sales and act as a crowd puller for the city centers. The new owners, the US investor Richard Baker and the German entrepreneur Bernd Beetz, are hoping for support from the states and local authorities. “Our department stores play a huge role in revitalizing city centers,” is their argument, according to “Spiegel”.
Galeria wants to concentrate on certain products
The new owners are also focusing on restructuring. According to “Spiegel”, the plan in the remaining branches is no longer to serve a significantly larger part of the space in-house, but rather to hand it over directly to individual branded goods manufacturers as so-called shop-in-shops. Galeria would not have to bear the goods risk for these areas itself. So far, this business only accounts for 7 percent of sales, but according to the report, the proportion is expected to increase to up to 40 percent in the medium term.
Another idea concerns the product range: Galeria wants to concentrate on the product categories perfumes and cosmetics, women's underwear, handbags, shoes and accessories. In other categories, such as household goods, there will only be a smaller selection of top-selling products.
There is still hope for three department stores
According to “Spiegel” information, Baker and Beetz plan to invest up to 100 million euros over the next two to three years to modernize the branches. The previous owner Signa pledged 200 million euros in March last year, half of it as a loan.
In addition, costs should be reduced, especially in administration. A total of 16 of 92 branches are to close. According to the report, there is still hope for the department stores affected in Oldenburg, Berlin-Spandau and Mannheim. It is said that there are “positive developments” in the negotiations with the landlords.
