Charles Vögele announces bankruptcy: "I am very sorry for the operation"
LINZ / KALSDORF. Visit to a branch: customers and employees hope that the continuation will succeed.
16 of the 102 branches of Charles Vögele are located in Upper Austria. The staff hope, "that somehow it continues". Image: Weihbold
"I'm not worried at all, it always goes on and on, so I'm quite optimistic," says the courteous Charles-Vögele saleswoman and continues to serve the customers.
Wer entertained on Tuesday with the staff in the Charles Vögele branch in Linz-Wegscheid, could hardly believe that the day for the approximately 700 Austrian employees in the 102 branches began with a bad message: The fashion chain based in Kalsdorf at Graz is insolvent
Vögele has filed a petition for a reorganization procedure without self-administration. The company was no longer able to pay the July salaries due and the deferred vacation pay for the workforce.
Creditors will receive a 20 percent quota over the next two years. The first creditors' meeting will take place on 13th August. "Compared with smashing the company and handing over the branches to individual customers, as always rumored, we see in the initiated restructuring process, the best chance to continue the company," said Thomas Krenn, CEO of Charles Vögele Austria, yesterday in a release. According to Krenn, sales negotiations are "far advanced."
48.5 million euros in liabilities
Negotiations are also continuing on the sister companies in Slovenia (eleven branches) and in Hungary (26 branches), which are also run from Kalsdorf , According to the creditor protection badociation Creditreform, the badets of the Austrian company amount to 28.4 million euros. Liabilities are expected to be 48.5 million.
Charles Vögele Holding was founded in 1955. After the IPO in 1999, the fashion chain was one of the largest clothing retailers in Europe. Up to 760 stores were in glory days in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands to the Group.
In 2016, an Italian investment group to the fashion group OVS took over the long-stumbling Swiss textile dealer Charles Vögele. In the home country of the chain, a concept change was tried: away from trousers and shirts for a more conservative audience over 40, to fashion for a much younger clientele. The concept did not work in Switzerland. As reported, all 140 branches with 1400 employees had to lock up there.
The Austrian business remained stable until 2016, with sales of 121 million euros. A year later, the break-in followed. The proceeds went back by 11.5 million euros, a loss was brought in.
After the Swiss mother slid into bankruptcy, 30 locations have been closed in Austria since the beginning of the year. 13 branches were converted to the "OVC" brand. In addition, there was a feverish search for an investor for the branches. But companies like Fussl, Hofer or Spar should, as reported, only be interested in individual locations. In a next step, the Vögele employees throughout Austria are to be informed at work meetings about the procedure, said Barbara Teiber, chairman of the union of private employees. [19659009] "There was always something there"
The few customers who are looking for bargains in the Wegscheider branch on Tuesday, regret the threat of the chain: "I would be very sorry for the operation," says a customer, her arms full with trousers and liveries. "The range has changed many times and there has always been something for customers of all sizes."
Times for textile retailers get even harder
Times for fashion retailers will become more difficult over the next few years, says market data badyst RegioData Research. The company expects that every third piece of clothing will be delivered by delivery by 2020.
According to the latest available market data, Austrians already buy 27 percent of their clothing online. In 2010, according to Wolfgang Richter of RegioData, this share was only six percent. "It does not matter if the goods are picked up at a branch afterwards. The purchase process takes place online. "Richter also says that the real online retailers such as Zalando would skim off significantly more of this ordering business. Stationary traders with online offerings could not participate to the same extent in the market share gain of the online trade.
The top 10 traders hold as in the previous year a market share of about 50 percent, according to the figures from RegioData. Within this, however, there are shifts: More conservative brands like Gerry Weber, Bonita, Cecil or Adler would lose sales. Discounters such as Primark and NKD increased
Charles Vögele landed at the end of 2017 with a market share of three percent in tenth place in the domestic clothing market. Richter says consumer behavior is changing and Charles Vögele has lacked a clear positioning in favor of the "cheap" or "popular brand" Poland.
The bottom line in domestic clothing retailing has fallen since 2016 – from more than 860,000 to below 780,000 square meters. However, this reduction is slower as the brick-and-mortar dealers lose business to the online competition.
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