Finally good news from the retail sector: German fashion giant Peek & Cloppenburg is expanding – also in smaller cities than before. On Thursday, sales manager Neofit Vasilev opened the 14th Austrian branch in Gmunden in the Salzkammergut and almost 25 jobs were created.
The new location is 2,300 square meters and therefore considerably smaller than other Peek & Cloppenburg (P&C) stores such as the one on Vienna’s Kärntner Straße with almost 12,000 square meters. Sales manager Vasilev: “Finally there is good news again, after all the bad news we hear from the clothing trade. We have a modern atmosphere for our customers here in the Salzkammergut!”
But P&C – the company has around 1,400 employees – has even bigger plans: “We are expanding rapidly. In the autumn/winter we will open another branch in Graz, in the Stadspark, with just over 3,000 square meters. We see even more opportunities for new branches, for example in the district capitals. And we also plan to enter the Italian market, Milan and Bolzano from Vienna this year.”
In Austria, Peek & Cloppenburg is in the top 3
Vasilev wants to score points with the mix of his own brands such as Christian Berg, Jakes and McNeal and well-known names such as Hugo Boss, Adidas and Nike. Vasilev: “We have 160 brands in Gmunden alone. In many shopping centers we are by far the most successful retailer in terms of turnover. In the entire Austrian textile trade we are certainly in the top three, if not even stronger.”
The great wave of price increases is over.
When it came to prices, P&C “couldn’t escape general inflation. But with the new collections, the price pressure decreases significantly, which means we are behind the wave,” says Vasilev. The manager also experiences the significant wage increases from the latest collective labor agreement negotiations as positive: “It is a burden for us, just like the other retailers, but we are not thinking about that in such a short period of time. In the long run, that means more purchasing power, and when people have more money, they can spend more on clothes.”
Of course, the German P&C mother from Düsseldorf went through a difficult time last year: she found herself in economic difficulties. Vasilev: “We successfully completed the insolvency procedure under our own responsibility within six months and it was one of the fastest procedures ever. We didn’t have to close any stores. We are now represented in 16 European countries, have 160 sales points and 16,000 employees!”
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.
