A popular fashion company will close by the end of April to 14 of its 54 branches in the South of Germany. Including Schongau. Nearly 220 employees are involved.
Weilheim/Schongau – Weilheim-based company with a long tradition of K&L takes drastic measures to get it into calmer water. The textile fashion-retailer close to 30. April 14 of its 54 branches (a list of all the stores in Bavaria, see below). Are affected nearly 200 employees, as the company announced. Including the store in Schongau with eleven employees.
The location on the station road is one of the smaller in the Portfolio and was opened in 2009. The other sites in the Region, the parent-Partenkirchen, Weilheim (43 employees) and in the Neidhart Park (6), as well as the branch in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, not on the list. However, it can also be painted in the Weilheim-based main management of approximately 20, 160 Employees will remain there. Overall, K&L has nearly 900 employees. In November, a poster in because provided a home for worry.
The decision is a result of the restructuring, which drives K&L-managing Director Jens Bächle since September 2017. Bächle had taken over the company from the founding family, Ruppert. As the cause of the problems, strategic errors of the past, a highly competitive fashion market, as well as the bad business with the winter collection in the hot summer of 2018.
branch of K&L in Schongau closes forever
in Addition, the company carries EUR 18 million of pension liabilities. This number, Dr. Christian Gerloff, who was appointed to 2018 by the shareholders ‘ meeting in the top management as CEO/Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) is called. Thanks to the realignment of liquidity, K&L, however, there would be sufficient finances until the end of 2019, with shares of the company.
at the beginning of October had informed K&L that it applied to the district court because the opening of protective shield proceedings for insolvency proceedings in self-administration. The court agreed, and opened on 1. January the bankruptcy proceedings. CEO Bächle describes it as “exactly the right step at the right time, in the case of a retrospective analysis of the overall development in the textiles market in the autumn/Winter”. With the help of Gerloff, who had advised fashion house Wöhrl and Escada, has been developed in the last three months of a restructuring concept.
the stores were put to the test. Last Friday, under the management and works Council signed a reconciliation of interests office of the social plan for the affected 220 people. “They were not easy negotiations,” admits Bächle. “We are aware that by this measure, many long-standing colleagues are affected, have contributed significantly to K&L with the build”. You’ve searched for with the works Council to find solutions, this elimination of a job, as far as possible to mitigate.
+ Closes soon: K&L store in Schongau.©Hans-Helmut Herold
Christian Strauß, Chairman of the works Council “Central administration” and a member of the overall worker representation, referred to the result as a “reasonable solution”. It was a goal, “to create the best possible balance of interests”. The Affected the “change notice was sent”. You will be offered, according to Strauss jobs in other branches. However, it was the majority of part-time workers, only a fraction will accept the offer. This is not the case, the termination 30. April effective, including severance pay.
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How long does the bankruptcy process, according to the lawyer, Gerloff in the stars. Is accompanied by a strategic tag: K&L want to set up wider, to a larger buyer address layer. The share of own-brand products will be reduced for products of other manufacturers. Successively, the 40 stores will be modernized. At the same time, K&L is looking for investors. The first offers available. A result could be expected in the next few weeks.
After the consolidation, you have “growth”, announces the head of the company Bächle. The first positive signs are there, according to the company. “Our Christmas business went very well,” says the Manager. What also applies to the first weeks of the new year. However, the Company believes that as a result of the branch closures with less revenue in the coming years. This is going to be settled according to Bächle a year to around 95 million euros – but then rentabeler sales. 2018, approximately 112 million euros, in 2017, there were around 120 million euros.
insolvency of the K&L – these branches in Bavaria affected
affected by the closure of K&L stores are not up to Schongau in upper Bavaria. In addition to Bavaria in Baden-Württemberg and Saxony. It is in the locations according to the company, for sales areas of between 500 and 3200 square meters.
the Following branches of K&L as at 30. April tight: Ingolstadt, Germany (Ludwig straße), Straubing (Ludwig’s square), Rosenheim (Munich street), Mühldorf (town square), Neu-Ulm (station road), Hof (Karolinenstraße), Pfaffenhofen (main square), Schongau (station road), Ulm (deer street), Ulm/Blaustein center (Blaubeurer Straße)), Bad Mergentheim, Germany (Johann-Hammer-Straße), Ellwangen (hospital road), Ludwigsburg (Marstall) and Plauen (post-course).
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