Rumors fueled

Furniture giant buys Kika building in St. Johann

The Kika building has been empty since last year.

(Bild: Gerhard Schiel)

A subsidiary of XXXLutz secures the furniture store in the district capital, which has been empty since the first bankruptcy. Rumors of a furniture store shake-up in Pongau are making the rounds again. 

"Kika St. Johann says thank you!" - it says on the Kika/Leiner company website. The furniture store has been closed since July 29, 2023. Financial turbulence forced the Kika/Leiner Group to close several branches. St. Johann and Saalfelden were among them. Even under new ownership, the furniture retail chain has not been able to fully recover since then. Just recently, the company slipped into bankruptcy again. Hundreds of jobs are on the line. The Group's two remaining locations in Eugendorf and the city of Salzburg are currently under threat of closure.

Will a new name soon be emblazoned on the building?

(Bild: Gerhard Schiel)

"Don't know anything about it"
Competitor XXXLutz, on the other hand, is doing good business and is expanding throughout Europe. With a subsidiary, the Wels-based group has now also struck in Pongau and bought the Kika building in St. Johann, of all places, which has been abandoned since last year. "I have no idea what the company is planning to do with it. We don't know anything about it," says St. Johann's mayor Eveline Huber (SPÖ).

This is also new to us. I have no idea what the company is planning to do with the Kika building. We also know nothing about any rumors or plans.

Eveline Huber, Bürgermeisterin St. Johann im Pongau

Huber's counterpart from the neighboring town of Bischofshofen also knows nothing about the purchase or the company's future plans. However, there have been persistent rumors for years that XXXLutz wanted to close its store in Bischofshofen or convert it into a Möbelix branch. An expansion of the furniture store has always failed so far.

New branch in St. Johann? No answer to request
A new, modern XXXLutz was to be built on an area of more than 10,000 square meters in the district capital of St. Johann. Europe's second largest furniture retailer has now acquired the space through the Kika purchase. The XXXLutz press department did not respond to a "Krone" inquiry about this.