Without debt, with more own brands and sometimes reduced prices, furniture chain kikaLeiner wants to win back customers with the remaining 17 branches. Neo director Volker Hornsteiner explains how they want to lead the company into a good future after surviving bankruptcy.
The colors red and green will remain and in the future advertisements and products will appear as kikaLeiner. The customer cards are standardized. But the 17 locations (6 Leiner, 11 Kika) will look the same from the outside as they do now; a renovation would be too expensive. However, the range is now 95 percent identical. In addition to branded items, own brands such as ‘Vonderstedt’, ‘Kitchen Basics’ and ‘Vivre’ will also be expanded.
The warehouses are full again
The bankruptcy has been completed, financing has been secured for two years and the warehouses are full again. Prices have been reduced for approximately 10,000 (out of 50,000) items.
“Customer confidence is back, we feel it,” says Volker Hornsteiner, the new management spokesperson, optimistically. Deposits are once again in the double digits of millions. These are guaranteed by insurance. In the new financial year, which started in October, turnover is expected to amount to around 400 million euros.
Including the restaurants, the group has almost 2,000 employees. “We fight for every customer,” says Hornsteiner, who previously worked at Billa for many years. Whether progress is made will be determined by Christmas activities and sales in January. Hornsteiner: “In three years, no one should be talking about bankruptcy anymore.”
New slogan “kikaLeiner comes closer to you”
Owner Hermann Wieser wants to stay in the background, although he is of course also the operational boss. The four-person management team takes care of Hornsteiner and marketing, sales and communications. An advertising campaign will start from October 10 under the slogan “kikaLeiner comes closer to you”.
“Our greatest asset is our employees,” Hornsteiner explains in an interview with “Krone”. For example, good kitchen salespeople are “like cold, hard money.” However, the largest source of income is living room furniture. In addition, it is important that everything works, from delivery to installation.
When it comes to financing, we currently have the “best financing offer on the market” with “0% interest for 60 months” (Hornsteiner). One challenge is to appeal to more and more younger customers in the future. The average age in the branches is currently 55+.
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.
