KarstadtQuelle AG is combining several department stores into the newly founded Premium Group. “We have extremely good stores in prime locations. This is why we are pursuing the strategy of steadily increasing the value of our department stores”, stated Thomas Middelhoff, Chairman of the Management Board. “The Premium Group is the first step in this process. We are upgrading the positioning of our stores because we want to offer customers more service, more brands and a better shopping experience.”
Patrice Wagner, Managing Director of the Berlin KaDeWe store, is assuming the management of the newly founded Premium Group, as a part of Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH, with immediate effect. Initially department stores such as KaDeWe in Berlin, Alsterhaus in Hamburg, Karstadt in Dresden, Karstadt on the Zeil in Frankfurt/Main and Hertie at the Munich main station will be brought together. This segment will then be developed on a phased basis. The plan is to develop the Wertheim stores on the KuDamm and Schlossstrasse in Berlin, Karstadt in Düsseldorf, Karstadt at Limbecker Platz in Essen, Karstadt in Cologne (Breite Strasse), Karstadt at the Lorenzkirche in Nuremberg, Oberpollinger in Munich as well as Karstadt in Stuttgart as Premium stores with outstanding locations, high-quality product ranges and brands and that these will then be part of the new group.
“We see very clear opportunities with this strategy. What is ultimately decisive is the location of the department stores. With Karstadt this is excellent”, stated the board member, Prof. Helmut Merkel.
Patrice Wagner was born in the town of Tarbes in the south of France where he graduated from high school in 1986. Between 1986 and 1989 he studied International Commerce in Toulouse. In 1990, he began work as a sales assistant at Breuninger, the southern German department store chain which he left as Managing Director in 1997. He moved to Berlin to manage the Galerie Lafayette department store on Friedrichstrasse. Since 2002, he has been Managing Director of KaDeWe which he has rigorously developed to be the top European store.
Currently Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH operates 90 department stores and 32 sporting goods stores in Germany, all of which are located in premium town centre locations. As announced, the properties are to be sold this year and leased back (sale and leaseback). With this property transaction, the Group is to be fully debt free, reaching another milestone for the new KarstadtQuelle AG. 2.5 million customers visit the Karstadt department stores each day. The company was founded 125 years ago in Wismar by Rudolf Karstadt.
