Shortly after the Christmas holidays, a possible “savior” for the Galeria department store group affected by the Signa insolvency appeared in some media for the first time: Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf.
The fact that Galeria’s employees once again have to start the new year with a queasy feeling has been apparent for a few weeks with the increasing number of bankruptcies within the parent company Signa. Since the insolvency of Signa Retail, to which the department store group belongs, the search for potential investors and a possible sale of Galeria are likely to be on the table again. And that less than a year after the last bankruptcy.
P&C denies takeover rumors
The rumor mill about a possible takeover from Düsseldorf was fueled by a report in the Bild newspaper, which stated that the Düsseldorf-based Peek & Cloppenburg KG, which only went through insolvency proceedings in September, was interested in the 90 Galerie Kaufhof branches and am currently examining the takeover. According to some media reports, the former Galeria boss Stephan Fanderl, who moved to Peek & Cloppenburg in 2021, is in charge of this project.
However, P&C quickly took the wind out of the rumors because the reporting on the takeover of the Galeria department store chain could not be confirmed, it said on Thursday at the request of FashionUnited from Düsseldorf. Nevertheless, we wish Galeria a successful future for the sake of its employees.
The Düsseldorf fashion retailer also confirmed that the strategy expert Fanderl, who was mentioned in the media as the mastermind, would be leaving the company at the end of the year. Fanderl came to Düsseldorf at the beginning of 2021 as part of the management team for corporate development, logistics and expansion, before moving to the management team of the subsidiary JC Switzerland Holding in August 2022 as Chief Strategy & Retail Development Officer.