Electronics
Ceconomy, the holding owning electronics chains MediaMarkt and Saturn, has had a bad year: after CEO Pieter Haas' departure in mid-October, now financial director Mark Frese also quits.
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General
With barely a week to go before Christmas, German union Verdi has organised a strike in two of Amazon's logistics centres. Verdi hopes to coerce the American e-tailer into providing better working conditions.
Europe's biggest electronics retailer MediaMarktSaturn has installed a self-checkout in its flagship store in Hamburg. Customers can now shop without passing by a cash register, if they so choose.
Fashion
For the first time, German e-tailer Zalando has departed from its renowned 'free' policy: in Italy, the company has started charging a delivery fee for small orders. A sign of things to come?
Fashion chain Esprit has announced a worldwide restructuring to keep the company competitive. Almost half of the staff will be terminated and many outlets will be closed around the globe.
The giant merger between German department store chains Karstadt and Kaufhof has finally been approved. Authorities cite the enormous (online) competition as a guarantee that this merger will not be too big.
Despite a rising turnover, online fashion shop Zalando saw its overall loss reach 55.7 million euros for the third quarter. The hot summer and too many returns were quite costly for the German company.
A new employee called Toru is starting in Zalando's warehouse in Erfurt, Germany. You might consider this nothing special, but Toru is an autonomous picking robot that can not only move whole boxes, but even individual objects.
Ceconomy CEO Pieter Haas leaves the holding company of German electronics chains Media Markt and Saturn with immediate effect, after another series of disappointing results.
German electronics group Ceconomy has released a profit warning: disappointing sales in its MediaMarkt and Saturn stores have caused the company to miss the profit forecast.
Food
German retail giant Metro is looking to sell its hypermarket chain Real, in order to continue narrowing its focus on wholesale. Amazon is named as one of the potential buyers.
The German department store chains Karstadt and Kaufhof have finally tied the knot. After months of negotiations, the banks have given their blessing. However, there is no question of a romantic honeymoon: 5 000 jobs will be cut.
The planned merger between department store group Galeria Kaufhof and its competitor Karstadt suddenly seems to be very far away again. Financial problems at Hudson's Bay Company, Kaufhof's owner, seem to be spoiling Karstadt’s appetite.
Outlet stores are becoming more important in Zalando's business model: two new stores are to open this summer, with many more to come.
Even though HelloFresh had promised to be out of the red before the end of the year, the meal box provider now chooses new investments over achieving that result. Strong results make the company go for a further American growth.
German sports brand Adidas has had a victorious quarter because of the World Cup football. Total turnover rose 4 % to 5.26 billion euro, a hefty 3.2 billion coming from shoe sales. Operational profit climbed 17 % to 592 million euro.
