KarstadtQuelle has announced plans to float its mail order
business, neckermann.de this year. The group is also considering
selling Neckermann in order to concentrate on its leading brand,
Quelle. “After an intensive phase of restructuring, we are
now realigning our businesses,” said the group’s Marc
Sommer. “Quelle and neckermann.de are number one and number
three in the German mail order market. Both are strong in
universal mail order, which has been to subject radical change.
We are taking neckermann.de to the stock exchange and are
concentrating on Quelle, which has a good positioning as a modern
multi-channel company.” The group says that in 2007, Quelle
will use monthly catalogues to offer fast-fashion and will be
supported by entry into the teleshopping sector. It is to sell
its activities in France, Portugal and Spain and concentrate on
German-speaking territories as well as its expansion to Russia.
Business in Belgium and The Netherlands is to be discontinued
early this year. It has also announced that in its Specialty Mail
Order division, it is to sell those companies which do not fall
into the three core segments of Golden Ager (e.g., Peter Hahn),
Premium (e.g., Elegance) or Communities (e.g. Baby-Walz) and buy
“suitable companies within these target groups”. It
is also to sell its Service Group, which comprises 14 call
centres, five logistics locations and IT service providers
affecting 10,000 employees, as a whole or in parts.
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