Signa shock over

Galeria is suddenly back in the black

Benko's Signa has left deep scars on the department store chain - after a radical overhaul, the company is now doing better again.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Christoph Reichwein)

With the fall of the real estate juggler René Benko, the German department store chain also got into serious difficulties. According to the new co-owner, however, the turnaround now seems to have been achieved - Galeria is back in the black.

Following the insolvency proceedings concluded in the summer, Galeria has made a profitable start to the new financial year according to its co-owner. "All 83 stores are in the black," entrepreneur Bernd Beetz told the Düsseldorf-based Handelsblatt newspaper.

In January 2024, Galeria filed for insolvency for the third time in just a few years after the department store chain ran into difficulties in the wake of the Signa insolvency.

Name and jobs eliminated
In April, a consortium consisting of the US investment group NRDC Equity Partners and Bernd Beetz's investment company BB Kapital SA took over the department store chain from Signa. Among other things, they removed the names Kaufhof and Karstadt and cut around half of the jobs at the Essen headquarters.

Galeria is now an "agile, owner-managed company", Beetz told the newspaper. For the current year, Galeria is aiming to increase sales by around 500 million euros to 2.5 billion euros. According to Beetz, the last time the department store chain was profitable was ten years ago.