Fashion trade: Fashion group C&A plans realignment with job cuts and online trade investments

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White on black:

the new logo from C&A

Photo: Michael Gstettenbauer / imago images

C&A European

(59) takes

.

Almost a year after taking office, it is clear how the longtime Ikea manager wants to realign the ailing fashion group.

According to information from manager magazin, the cornerstones of the agenda are investments in the previously neglected online business and the centralization of essential administrative tasks in order to accelerate processes and save personnel costs.

Accordingly, the social partners will be informed this Wednesday.

How many jobs will be lost is apparently still unclear and depends on the negotiations that are now beginning.

A spokeswoman confirms the information on request.

The upcoming talks could turn out to be tough, after all, Boer's predecessors had cut staff costs several times.

Nevertheless, C&A still has two head offices, one in Brussels and one in Düsseldorf.

In the future, the Düsseldorf location is likely to be strengthened, and insiders estimate that the headquarters in Belgium could be eliminated.

The country organizations will also be reorganized.

The most important market Germany will remain as a separate organization, the other markets will be combined: in Central Eastern Europe, Benelux and Southern Europe.

In addition to CEO Boer, Birgit Kretschmer (CFO), Eric Brenninkmeijer (Clusters & Countries), Martijn Van der Zee (Merchandise & Sustainability), Joris Van Rooy (Digital & Consumer) and Jean Sebastien Guy will be responsible for the central areas of management (People & Culture) and Betty Kiess (Corporate Communications).

For years, C&A has suffered from increasing competition from discounters such as Primark and Aldi and the falling visitor frequency in the city centers.

Many managers have already tried their hand at the realignment, most recently the former Rewe boss Alain Caparros, whose balance sheet was glorifying.

According to insiders, the Frenchman alone is said to have caused personnel costs in the high double-digit million range.

Boer almost completely renews C&A management team

According to the latest available balance sheet, C&A accumulated an annual deficit of EUR 93.6 million in the core market of Germany alone in the 2019/2020 financial year, which was concluded at the end of February 2020 and thus before the nationwide lockdown measures.

Sales fell by 2.26 to 2.16 billion euros.

Due to the pandemic, the balance sheet for the 2020/2021 financial year is likely to have been even more disastrous.

Since January of this year, Boer has been responsible for turning things around.

Before that, the 59-year-old worked for the Swedish furniture company Ikea, which she left in December 2018, for almost a quarter of a century.

Like many of her predecessors, Boer has put together almost a completely new team for the Herculean task.

Personnel manager Guy came from Ikea, digital manager Van Rooy from Nike, financier Kretschmer from Adidas and communications manager Kiess from Eon.

C&A operates 1,400 branches in 18 European countries and employs 23,000 people.

The company belongs to the German-Dutch Brenninkmeijer clan.

However, the company has recently lost a lot of its importance for the family.

The Brennikmeijers are said to have tried to sell C&A to a Chinese company as early as 2018, later the family brought the Brazilian subsidiary to the stock exchange, and in the previous year the China business was sold to an investor.

The European business has remained - and a huge task for Boer.