Plan Failed – Benko Wants to Cut Kika/Leiner Sites

“Due to the circumstances, some stores are no longer suitable to meet our requirements for a modern furniture store,” quotes the newspaper Kika/Leiner manager Reinhold Güterbier. For example, the plan to set up a network of up to ten new kitchen studios under the name Eskole failed. According to suppliers, a store that opened a year ago in Linz is about to close.

Demand for kitchens would drop, Gutebier said. Nevertheless, the Eskole stores in Vienna and Graz are developing “very well”, and the new brand should grow again in the medium term.

In total, four to fifteen of the 42 locations will be affected by the closure. They should be for sale. On the balance sheet as of September 30, 2021, the company has 3,750 employees and a turnover of 740 million euros. However, the balance sheet loss amounts to almost 84 million euros and therefore it was not far from a black zero, according to Gutebier.

Furniture trade slows down
It should be noted, however, that the furniture trade experienced a special boom during the peak phase of the corona pandemic. Things have been slowing down again since the summer.

Things are not going well for Benko in Germany either. His department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof has not filed for so-called ‘protective shield’ insolvency proceedings for the first time. At least a third of the approximately 130 branches are about to close. A protective shield insolvency proceedings is a special variant of self-government that aims to present an insolvency plan. The company must meet certain criteria, such as submitting an application at an early stage and providing justification.