2024-04-30 01:40:15
There are currently 700 Woolworth stores in Germany. This number is expected to more than double in the coming years.
While Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is in bankruptcy, the department store discounter Woolworth has ambitious expansion plans and wants to more than double the number of its branches. “There should be 1,500 branches in Germany in the next few years,” said the head of Woolworths in Germany, Roman Heini, to the “Tagesspiegel”, as the newspaper reported online on Monday. The chain recently opened its 700th branch.
According to “Tagesspiegel”, Heini wants to open over 200 new branches in the new financial year from May to next April alone, 40 of which are in Poland and 30 in Austria. “We are only at the beginning of our European expansion,” said Heini. There is “no real market leader” in the discount sector in Europe. “We see opportunities and will take advantage of them.”
Although some of Galeria’s locations are also interesting, “the space is too large for us as sole tenants,” emphasized the manager. But he hopes that many of the department stores will be saved so that the inner cities don’t suffer. “Nobody cares about empty shops,” said Heini.