Gerry Weber is another German retail chain in crisis. The company managed to avoid bankruptcy only three years ago, but the situation for the clothing manufacturer from Halle in Westphalia is not looking good again, media reported. Previously, Scotch & Soda, Goertz, Peek & Cloppenburg and Galeria Kaufhof were in trouble.
Gerry Weber is a German clothing company specializing in women’s clothing. It has over 700 stores around the world and employs approximately 2,100 people.
Gerry Weber opens bankruptcy proceedings
Now, Gerry Weber International AG has announced “far-reaching changes”: unprofitable stores will be closed and jobs will be cut. On Wednesday, the company’s application for the initiation of insolvency proceedings was submitted to the district court in Essen, the Stylebook portal found out.
Gerry Weber opens bankruptcy proceedingsShutterstock
“It’s a necessary response to external circumstances,” explained Angelika Schindler-Obenhaus, head of Gerry Weber International. The reasons for the company’s bad condition are the pandemic and its effects on trade, as well as the growing one inflation. Gerry Weber is also to disappear from the stock exchange, added Schindler-Obenhaus.
IN Germany Gerry Weber Retail GmbH operates 149 stores and 28 outlets. In the next few months, it will be decided which of them are profitable enough to continue operating and which will be closed as part of restructuring. For this purpose, “every square meter” of stores will be checked, announced Schindler-Obenhaus. For the time being, these processes will not apply to the company’s wholesale, online sales and stores operating outside Germany.
These are not the first problems for Gerry Weber; the company filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of 2019. At that time, as part of restructuring, the company closed 120 stores in Germany, and the bankruptcy proceedings were discontinued at the district court in Bielefeld after a year.
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