Peek & Cloppenburg takes stock of the past two years marked by the pandemic. The fashion retailer with headquarters in Düsseldorf and Vienna plans to open new stores in Brussels and Prague in 2022. And sets an ambitious goal for 2026.
The pandemic year
In 2020, Peek & Cloppenburg KG Düsseldorf clearly fell short of the previous year’s sales level: Net sales of 1.02 billion euros were around 29 percent below the previous year’s level of 1.43 billion euros. The Ebitda was minus 49.5 million euros, the Ebitda margin was minus 4.8 percent. The fashion company also struggled in Eastern Europe: Peek & Cloppenburg KG Vienna posted sales of 560 million euros, a decrease of 29.2 percent compared to 2019.
The number of stores in 2020 was 138 in 15 countries. Last year, Peek & Cloppenburg KG Düsseldorf employed around 10,120 people, the Viennese company around 3,460.
New houses in Brussels and Prague
The fashion retailer explains that in the future his focus will “continue to be on stationary retail as a business basis”. At the same time, physical business is to be more closely linked to e-commerce.
In 2021, Peek & Cloppenburg renovated more than 42,000 square meters of retail space or gained it through new openings. The company plans to expand further in 2022, with new branches planned in Gießen and Weil am Rhein, as well as new stores in Brussels and Prague.
“All expansion and development plans contribute to the vision of becoming Europe’s leading omnichannel multi-brand retailer for fashion by 2026,” the company explained on Monday. “Important steps on the way are the expansion of the stationary network of Peek & Cloppenburg and Anson’s as well as the introduction of a customer-oriented, digitally controlled omnichannel architecture.”
No forecasts
Peek & Cloppenburg is planning a new logistics center in Bedburg and various omnichannel initiatives in order to interlink stationary and digital business more closely. As part of the digitization plans, Peek & Cloppenburg was one of the first multi-brand fashion retailers to introduce PayPal as a payment option in stationary retail in November. In order to better interlink the branches with the online business, the IT and logistics areas are to be expanded in terms of personnel and structure.
The group has not yet presented preliminary business figures for 2021, and Peek & Cloppenburg does not dare to provide an outlook for the future in its balance sheet. “In a time with unpredictable events, it is hardly possible to make predictions for the future,” says Düsseldorf.