C&A plans to close 100 German stores

According to German sources, C&A is planning to close up to one hundred stores in Germany. The fashion group wants to rehabilitate its most important market through a major restructuring programme.

“Turnaround Germany”

C&A wants to significantly reduce its store network in Germany: according to ‘manager magazin’, the store chain reportedly wants to close 100 of the 450 stores it has in Germany. The restructuring program has been called, rather unimaginatively, ‘Turnaround Germany’.

The fashion group is currently negotiating lower rents with the owners of retail properties. If C&A does not receive the desired concessions, the stores in question will be closed; the sources say. Unprofitable branches will reportedly be closed down anyway. The stores in Dessau, Rottenburg and Witten, among others, would be closed in the first months of next year.

The fashion group, run by the Brenninkmeijer family, describes it as a normal process to critically examine the branch network. The company does not wish to comment further on the scope of the planned closures. Last year, the family had searched in vain for a buyer for the fashion chain.