The company from Westphalia in Germany, which is currently undergoing restructuring proceedings, intends to focus more on its wholesale business in future and will therefore be reducing its store network by the end of September. Of a total of 171 locations in Germany, 49 will be retained.
“By consistently turning to the wholesale business, Gerry Weber is returning to its roots,” said Gerry Weber CEO Angelika Schindler-Obenhaus. “At the same time, we are finally putting an end to the course we embarked on more than ten years ago of overly ambitious expansion of our own retail, which has proven to be neither in line with the market nor viable for the future.”
The closures will also affect 350 full-time jobs at Gerry Weber Retail GmbH, which will be eliminated, and around 75 employees at Gerry Weber International AG and Life-Style Fashion GmbH are also to be made redundant. In addition to the realignment of the retail subsidiary, Gerry Weber International AG is also undergoing a restructuring process that has “started as planned,” the company said. Negotiations are currently underway with investors and major creditors so that a restructuring plan can be submitted to the responsible restructuring court in Essen in mid-July as the next step.
Just over three years ago, Gerry Weber had to be saved from bankruptcy with the help of insolvency proceedings.
