The ailing department store group Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof has appointed Olivier van den Bossche as its new CEO. The Belgian, who has some history with constituents of the merger group, now has to lead the chain back to growth.
Severe reorganisation
Van den Bossche, currently sales director, will climb to the top job at the German chain, Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports. In May 2022, Van den Bossche returned to the German company after heading Galeria’s Belgian chain Inno from 2007 to 2014, before leading Kaufhof for 2.5 years. Since then, he made a foray into Dutch chain Rituals as commercial director.
Galeria is currently going through insolvency proceedings and a severe restructuring is ongoing. Last week, the chain announced that it would close almost half of its 129 shops. The group is also demanding heavy debt rescheduling from its suppliers and creditors.
Nevertheless, Galeria hopes to get out of debt protection as early as May. “As Galeria’s head of sales and former CEO of Kaufhof, Olivier van den Bossche is destined like no other for the fresh start after the successful termination of the protection shield”, Galeria board member Wolfram Keil said of his new CEO.
