Austria: Kika/Leiner closes 23 stores

After the takeover of Kika/Leiner, the new owner has now announced "far-reaching restructuring measures" to turn around the Austrian furniture store chain. Accordingly, it is planned to close 23 of the 40 stores and to cut 1900 of 3900 jobs. Hermann Wieser, the new managing director, told the newspaper Handelsblatt: "We started out to save Kika/Leiner. And we are now saving what can be saved." Deep and rapid cuts were necessary to ensure the survival of the company, he said.

Austrian investor René Benko's Signa Group had taken over Kika/Leiner from the Steinhoff Group in 2018. It was only at the end of May that the sale of the properties housing the chain's furniture stores was sold to the Supernova Group. Meanwhile, the operating business of Kika-Leiner has been taken over by the investment company around Hermann Wieser, a former managing director of Kika/Leiner.

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