2024-09-17 00:02:31
Three bankruptcies and a change of ownership later: Galeria is looking for sustainable concepts. In Berlin, there is said to be a cooperation with a discount chain.
A turbulent year for the department store chain Galeria: Around one and a half months after the conclusion of the latest insolvency proceedings and the takeover by new investors, the first details about the company’s realignment have become known.
This is necessary in order to make the significantly reduced number of branches sustainable. After all, five years ago Galeria still had 173 stores. Currently there are only 83.
In order to make these more attractive again, the areas of beauty, shoes, handbags, underwear, but also fashion, home and leisure are to be strengthened, as the “Lebensmittelzeitung” reports, citing a strategy paper. Cooperation partners are to be brought in for the peripheral areas of food, furniture and entertainment electronics mentioned in the paper.
The first major partner has already been confirmed: the discount chain Lidl will move into two Berlin branches, at Hermannplatz in Neukölln and at Kurfürstendamm in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The locations offer enough space for a range of more than 4,000 individual items, it was said. The supermarket can be accessed both via the Galeria branch and via its own entrance. This is the first time that Lidl has been located in a Galeria location.
But it will probably not stop in Berlin. As the “Lebensmittelzeitung” first reported, Lidl is interested in opening stores in 14 Galeria locations. According to insiders, the reason for the decision is the plan to attract younger customers to the stores via the discounter. Galeria’s own food departments in 23 stores could focus more on the premium sector in the future and place more emphasis on wine, spirits and delicatessen, the report continues.
And according to insiders, another partner is also attempting a test run with Galeria: a pick-up station for the furniture chain Ikea is to be set up in the Berlin branch at Hermannplatz. Lidl has now confirmed the cooperation, but Ikea did not want to comment.
As the “Lebensmittelzeitung” also reports, insiders say that CEO Olivier van der Bossche will soon have a co-managing director at his side. According to the report, Christian Sailer will take over the position of CFO as early as October 1. Until the summer, Sailer was head of the Weltbild Group, which filed for bankruptcy in June and subsequently ceased operations.
The department store group has had new owners since August 1st. The US investment company NRDC and a holding company owned by the entrepreneur Bernd Beetz now have the say at Galeria S.à rl & Co. KG, which is the new company name. Kaufhof and Karstadt have been removed from the company names. The new company sign, which now only says Galeria, has already been gradually introduced.
It remains to be seen to what extent the restructuring of the company will go beyond this. However, experts had already expressed doubts after the first announcements as to whether the new investors were planning to invest enough money. So far, it is known that they have only pledged a double-digit million range after initial investments.