Insolvency at Galeria: Co-owner criticizes management

The ailing department store chain Galeria wants to go through its fourth insolvency proceedings in the last six years. The management is also responsible for this for one of the co-owners.

The co-owner of the insolvent Galeria department store chain, Bernd Beetz, criticizes the management around Tilo Hellenbock for filing for bankruptcy and calls for a quick restructuring. Beetz told the “Bild” newspaper that he considered bankruptcy to be avoidable in principle.

"The shareholders took over Galeria in a difficult situation and invested a lot of time, energy and their own capital to give the company a future. The crucial thing would have been to implement the necessary transformation more consistently and quickly," said Beetz. He explained that this requires “in particular stringent merchandise management, a clear product range strategy and a significantly stronger customer orientation”.

Beetz was optimistic: "A department store can still be successful today - but only if it clearly stands out from the competition and is operationally managed excellently." Beetz emphasized that personnel decisions must now be made based on the question of who enjoys the greatest trust from creditors, employees, suppliers and possible investors: "It's not about individual people, but about ensuring the best possible leadership for the next phase."

Numerous branches have already closed

The Düsseldorf District Court ordered preliminary insolvency proceedings for the department store chain. This emerges from a message from the court on the insolvency notices.de portal. The lawyer Frank Kebekus was appointed as the provisional insolvency administrator. According to the court order, he is now authorized to collect bank balances and other claims from Galeria and to accept incoming funds. As an administrator, Kebekus already accompanied the insolvency proceedings for the group in 2020 and 2022.

For Galeria, this is the fourth insolvency application within six years, following 2020, 2022 and 2024. Business operations in the 83 branches should continue for the time being. As a result of the previous insolvency proceedings, numerous branches have already been closed. The creditors waived claims worth billions in order to enable the department store chain to emerge from the crisis.

A good two and a half years ago, the company, then still under the name Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, submitted its last application to date. This was preceded by the difficulties of the then parent company Signa.

Since summer 2024, Galeria has belonged to the US investment company NRDC and an investment company owned by the entrepreneur Beetz. The names Kaufhof and Karstadt disappeared from the company name. Galeria moved its headquarters from Essen to Düsseldorf.