The German fashion chain Peek & Cloppenburg has to restructure and has filed for bankruptcy. The Austrian sister company with 13 branches is not affected by the protective shield. This also applies to other group companies in the Netherlands and abroad.
The protective shield serves to “accelerate the company’s restructuring process initiated by the crisis,” the company said on Friday. The approximately 6,800 German P&C employees will receive a salary from the employment agency for the next three months. Also for Peek & Cloppenburg Retail Buying GmbH & Co. KG has filed for a protection shield proceeding. The Düsseldorf-based group has 67 branches in its home market of Germany.
Management remains in charge
Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf initiated the protective shield procedure “to adapt to the changed market conditions in Germany and to reposition it for the future,” the company explains. With the protection shield, the company will develop, under its own responsibility, the measures necessary for restructuring and reorganization and implement them in the short term. The management of the company remains in the hands of the management.
Director Thomas Freude told the “Wirtschaftswoche” that “jobs will also be lost” in the course of the process. It is clear “that we will be scrutinizing all those hierarchical levels and areas in the headquarters where costs have increased disproportionately in recent years”. Currently about 800 people work there. “It’s a measure that doesn’t match business volume,” Freude told the paper.
Corona losses “we can’t just put them away”
Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf lost 30 percent turnover during the Corona period and at the same time created many administrative jobs. “These are losses that we cannot simply tolerate,” the general manager emphasized. After the end of the Corona circumstances, the recovery was “not as strong as hoped”, and “the past financial year was not particularly successful for us either”.
The number of customers visiting the branches is still below the level before the Corona period. In addition, many customers currently have to save due to high inflation.
Doing business online is miserable
According to Freude, there are also losses in the online business. “The expectations of the online business have not been fulfilled for us at all,” said the director of the “Wirtschaftswoche”. He announced that it is now moving “in the direction of store first rather than online first”. The branches still form the basis of the company. “As of today, we want to continue to operate all stores and avoid layoffs there.”
Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf and Peek & Cloppenburg Hamburg are two separate companies. The menswear stores Anson’s and Magasin du Nord also belong to the Düsseldorf group.
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.
