Galeria in Chemnitz closes, Dresden and Leipzig remain

The struggling retail group Galeria Kaufhof is closing its store in Chemnitz. The department store is on a list of 16 stores published on Saturday that are to be closed by August 31 this year. The other Saxon stores in Dresden and Leipzig, however, are to remain. In addition to Chemnitz, the closure list includes stores in Essen, Mannheim, Mainz, Würzburg and three stores in Berlin.

Of the approximately 12,800 people employed by the company, 11,400 are to keep their jobs. 1400 will have to leave. According to Galeria, a reconciliation of interests and social plan were agreed with the general works council on Friday. "We will do everything we can to lead our business into a successful future. We believe we are well placed to do so, not least due to our sales performance in the current financial year," said Galeria CEO Olivier Van den Bossche. The company's headquarters are to be relocated from Essen to the Düsseldorf Shadowstrasse branch. The department store group filed for insolvency at the beginning of January. It is the third insolvency in three and a half years. At the time, Galeria boss Olivier Van den Bossche cited the insolvencies of the Signa Group, previously owned by René Benko, as one of the reasons for the difficult situation. Their imbalance had an immediate impact: Funding for the restructuring of the department store chain, which had been promised in the course of Benko's previous insolvency, no longer flowed.

Van den Bossche and Denkhaus announced in January that their goals were to find a new owner and to preserve Galeria. According to the company, it then negotiated with several potential investors. Since the beginning of April, it has been known that a consortium consisting of the US investment company NRDC and the company BB Kapital SA of entrepreneur Bernd Beetz wants to take over the department store chain.