The number of employees at Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (GKK) has been halved since 2014: only about 17,000 commercial employees work for the German department store group, which had to file for bankruptcy for the second time in three years at the end of October and had to apply for a protective shield procedure. While employees of department store juggler René Benko feared for their jobs, company managers celebrated in Tyrol.
According to a report by this week’s “Handelsblatt”, only “about every third” of the 130 Galeria outlets still in existence will receive “a guarantee of survival”. companies owned by Signa “belong”. Signa Group, founded by Benko, declined to comment when asked.
Vibrant party in a noble Tyrolean hotel
While many of the approximately 17,000 GKK employees feared for their jobs around Christmas and then ushered in a highly uncertain New Year, department store juggler Benko seemed to be in a festive mood. At least for Christmas Eve. The Tyrolean Signa group held a lavish party at the chic Hotel Interalpen in Telfs, to which many of the group’s executives were invited.
The highlight of the festival was probably the performance of the band and disco formation Boney M. (“Daddy Cool”, “Rivers of Babylon”, “Ma Baker”), which may indicate more than 150 million records sold worldwide. Reportedly, the show act even surpassed Benko’s incendiary speech. But that’s probably just a bad rumor…
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
