After the merger with Karstadt have to adjust the employees of the ailing Department store chain Kaufhof on hard cuts. “In his current condition, gallery Kaufhof is survival in the long term,” stated the chief of the joint venture, Stephan Fanderl, on Friday afternoon. The consequences: 2600 full-time jobs are to be cut at the chain. Since many Employees work part-time, are likely 4,000 to 5,000 employees will be affected. Around 1,000 jobs will disappear in the governance and management structures, and a further 1600 in the stores. Renovation-related closures are planned. Kaufhof to get out according to the plans Fanderls but “immediately” from the tariff binding. The trade Union Verdi announced opposition to the plans. “We are not a renovation, the healthy encounter of the group, solely on the backs of the employees”, said Verdi Federal Board member Stefanie use Berger. “We will fight for every job.” Use Berger said it was a bad Start for the new Department store holding company. Verdi, missing, among other things, a sustainable concept for the future.
650 Kaufhof, employees in Berlin affected
Kaufhof since the end of November, part of a joint venture with the competitor Karstadt. The former Kaufhof-owner HBC had agreed to the merger last year, after a long Hesitation. The Canadians are involved with a 49.99 percent stake in the joint venture with Karstadt, which has around 240 stores, with sales of five billion euros and 32,000 employees. In Berlin Kaufhof after Verdi has around 650 employees in Berlin-Brandenburg there are about 800. Karstadt employs in the capital to around 1100 employees and operates in Brandenburg, another Department store in Potsdam.
Kaufhof employees earn twelve percent more
The differences in pay between the workforces of Kaufhof and Karstadt are great. For Kaufhof, the surface covered by a collective agreement, Karstadt has abandoned him six years ago. “Kaufhof Employees earn twelve percent more than the employees of the Karstadt stores,” said Petra Ringer, a trade expert at Verdi Berlin-Brandenburg, the daily mirror.
Christmas sales
Kaufhof had suffered according to insiders in the important Christmas business, the revenue declines of four percent, also in the Online-business should it have a slight Minus. This is exacerbating the pressure on Fanderl.
the majority shareholder of the new Department store giant Karstadt-Kaufhof is the Signa Holding of the Austrian Investor Rene Benko. Karstadt has in the operating business, the Say. Fanderl has many years of Karstadt-chief and lead the new Department-store group. The group must exist in fierce competition with the Online retailers from Amazon to Zalando.
main office to save in food
in order To costs, there should also be changes in the administration. The new Department store giant Karstadt and Kaufhof will be directed to the lead from the Essen Karstadt Headquarters. The Cologne-based Kaufhof headquarters, a Center of competence for digitisation and E-Commerce has to be established. with Reuters
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house of chains, the cartel office Were approved the merger of Karstadt and Kaufhof
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