Essen. In addition to the planned closure of dozens of branches of the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store chain, 20 of the 30 branches of the Karstadt Sports subsidiary are also to close. The German press agency found out on Saturday. The negotiations had lasted until the early morning, it was said. Previously the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger “reported about it. (Paywall)
According to information from the newspaper, the locations in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Hamburg and Munich as well as the headquarters of Karstadt Sports in Essen are to be closed. A total of 700 jobs are affected. A list of which branches should be closed was initially not available. In Saxony there is a Karstadt Sports branch in Dresden. It is unclear whether this will also be closed.
The ailing department store group had announced the closure of 62 of its 172 stores the day before. According to the general works council, a total of 5,317 employees will lose their jobs as a result. The group currently has 28,000 employees. Originally, the management even wanted to close up to 80 stores.
Are the inner cities dying out?
The management of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof described the measures as inevitable on Friday. “We know what this means for the employees concerned. But there is no alternative to this step because these branches endanger the entire existence of the company,” said General Manager Arndt Geiwitz.
In view of the announced closings, local authorities and politicians are warning of the inner cities becoming extinct. “The affected communities must develop future strategies together with the trade and property owners,” said the chief executive of the Association of Cities and Towns, Gerd Landsberg, of the “Passauer Neue Presse” (Saturday). Property owners play a central role.
The center manager ECE as one of the major landlords announced further discussions. “As long as nothing has been finally decided, we want to continue negotiating with Karstadt Kaufhof and fighting for the locations,” said Steffen Eric Friedlein, ECE’s leasing manager, in Hamburg on Saturday. 12 of the Group’s 172 locations are – often for decades – in various shopping centers operated by ECE and are largely affected by the closure plans.
“In the last few weeks we have mediated with a lot of commitment and great commitment between Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof and the owners of our centers and developed very far-reaching solutions to avoid closings in our centers and to preserve jobs in the branches,” said Friedlein.
New business models are in demand
The Greens demanded that the federal government should introduce “purchase-on-site” vouchers to support stationary retail as well as local services and restaurants. “Inner cities and town centers must not become extinct. The federal government must therefore urgently extend the bridging aid beyond August,” said the economic policy spokeswoman for the Greens in the Bundestag, Katharina Dröge.
Landsberg told the “Passauer Neue Presse” that Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof was representative of the crisis in many stationary retailers, which was exacerbated by the corona pandemic. “According to estimates by trade experts, 50,000 retailers are about to go bankrupt.” In the editorial network Germany (RND / Saturday) he emphasized that the corona pandemic also offers an opportunity: “We have to succeed in developing new business models – for example community concepts between retail, gastronomy, culture, but also office uses.” Further closings must be prevented.
Living in city centers could become more attractive, especially since less office space is needed due to the trend towards home offices. “The aim must be to actively counter the threatened bleeding of our inner cities,” said Landsberg. For this, municipalities, companies, insolvency administrators and property owners would have to sit down around the table. (dpa / SZ)
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