Among the causes, a mix of rising costs, the Signa bankruptcy and a declining willingness among consumers to buy ultimately proved to be an insurmountable hurdle for the chain, stated the company in a recent release. As a result, the Supernova Group, which took over the Kika/Leiner properties in 2023, is estimated to lose 30 million euros.
Over the past ten years, Kika/Leiner experienced three ownership changes, one insolvency and numerous store closures with staff redundancies. In 2013, the South African Steinhoff Group acquired the domestic furniture giant from the then owner family Koch. At that time, Kika/Leiner had around 7,500 employees and 73 locations in Austria and Eastern Europe.
This year, the chain has already cut 500 more jobs, reducing staff from 1900 employees to 1400 employees. Now, all 1,400 employees in the 17 branches throughout Austria are affected by the bankruptcy. It will be decided in the next few days whether the proceedings will result in bankruptcy and the company will be broken up.
