Purchasing power is melting away in inflation, Corona has not been overcome and online trade is eating away at once-proven concepts. Stationary retail is suffering – in Germany and worldwide. In Nuremberg, a fashion chain tries to escape to the front.
Could Christian Greiner convince his father’s wife? Dagmar Wöhrl, married to the Nuremberg entrepreneur Hans Rudolf Wöhrl, is an investor in the TV show “Lion’s Cave” and in this capacity evaluates resourceful young entrepreneurs. Greiner has been the owner and chairman of the supervisory board of the Wöhrl fashion houses since 2017, when he took over the company founded by his grandfather from protective shield proceedings. There are 29 locations nationwide, mainly in Bavaria, but also occasionally in Baden-Württemberg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Ironically, Greiner now wants to take off with a chain of stationary fashion retailers that have been declared dead.
At the Wöhrl headquarters in Nuremberg, Greiner is now trying to break free in an industry that has only seemed to know the economic downward trend for years. Sales in stationary fashion retail are falling, online retail is digging into established business models, department stores have to close. The corona pandemic with excruciatingly long lockdown phases caused sales to drop further. Now there is also the loss of purchasing power due to high energy and food costs, and a recession is imminent.
Even without Corona and the Ukraine crisis, the situation for stationary retailers like Wöhrl was not rosy. Just a few decades ago, the neon signs of chains like Hertie, Horten or Karstadt dominated the inner cities of Germany – except for Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, they have all disappeared. And the last department store dino that stayed, thanks to a merger and lavish government aid, is reportedly doing just mediocre at best. Among other things, the branch in Munich’s Stachus, which was just saved two years ago, now had to say goodbye to its customers. Wöhrl’s competitor C&A lost almost one billion euros in annual sales between 2011 and the pre-Corona year 2019. Others also have to fight.
With a new concept, a bouquet of ideas and youthful ambition, Greiner – at the same time CEO of the Munich inner-city department store Ludwig Beck – now wants to revitalize the Nuremberg location for Wöhrl and thus create an example for others. “We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t really believe in it,” says Greiner.
“We are convinced that city centers only work if you create real shopping experiences. If you can offer people something extraordinary, beyond shopping, then there is a future.” Personal and high-quality advice must also be added – this works better in fashion than in electronics, for example.
Jens Nußbaum, head of department at the Dortmund city planners’ office Stadt und Handel, agrees with Greiner and his strategy. “Right now you have to invest, if you can,” he says. In the future, stationary trade will be able to sell much less the pure product – the competition from online trade is far too dominant. “What the stationary trade has to sell is an attitude to life,” says Nußbaum.
After the conversion of the complex around the headquarters, Wöhrl only uses 20,000 of the 30,000 square meters of sales space itself. The family-owned real estate group Tetris rents out the rest to partners – including service companies such as Deutsche Post, restaurateurs, beauty experts and also an Aldi branch . Art exhibitions and music events are intended to draw people into the department store and tempt them to stay, while contemporary offers such as DJ performances and pop-up bars ensure stimulation and ambience in equal measure.
One of the visual incentives will be a three meter wide and 27 meter high LED wall that runs the length of the new department store. Wöhrl, Tetris and their trading partners have invested 40 million euros in the location. “It is currently one of the largest projects in German retail,” said Greiner.
Some experts remain skeptical. “Ultimately, this is a shopping center,” says economics professor Gerrit Heinemann from the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. And it’s too small for that. Heinemann is the author of several books on the future of retail in Germany. Projects like the one in Nuremberg are given a chance if the sales area is 50,000 to 100,000 square meters – at Wöhrl it is a total of 30,000. Wöhrl contradicts: The project is not a copy of a shopping center. After all, two-thirds of the area is taken up by the core business, and there is no right to a full range.
“Ultimately, subletting space means withdrawing,” says Heinemann. The trade as a whole is in a dramatic situation. “The trend towards declining sales and space in department stores will certainly continue in the future,” says the retail expert. Mono-label stores such as the flagship stores of sporting goods brands are among the exceptions here. (dpa)