An extraordinary works council is scheduled for Thursday morning at the department store chain Inno. Inno’s parent company, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, has been in bad financial shape for several years. To mop up”several tens of millions of euros in debt“, the group would consider selling its Belgian branch.
16 stores are affected in Belgium, including four in Brussels and three in Wallonia: Liège, Charleroi and Namur. In total, a thousand jobs are threatened.
The sale of these 16 branches should help the parent company to repay heavy debts. A broader restructuring of the group is also on the agenda, according to several German media, taken up by the Belgian magazine Gondola.
Belgian stores have nevertheless been doing better financially for two years and have even returned to profitability at the end of 2022. Last October, the channel’s CEO, Armin Devender, even congratulated himself on having succeeded in “reverse“, expecting a “considerable growth” for the next years.
According to Xavier Muls, CGSLB permanent secretary, “above all, workers want to be reassured regarding their future within the Belgian brand“. The trade unionist also says he is rather optimistic regarding the outcome of this works council.
Some fears, however, darken the picture: “Potential buyers have come forward to the management, of which we have no news“. “Behind every sale or resale hides a restructuring, one way or another“, observes Mr. Muls, who hopes that the workers will be able to “escape a social bloodbath as Makro stores have experienced recently“.