Meteriguel Müllenbach knew very well that this project would be counterproductive. The CEO of Galeria is not without reason Karlstadt Kaufhof calls podcasts “dangerous honesty.” This can only be heard from Essen’s intranet. Müllenbach personally presided over the meeting and invited guests from the staff. They should tell the last German department store group what went wrong. Therefore, in the first episode, the cashier at the Hauptwache Kaufhof branch in Frankfurt described a process that could be improved by nearly five minutes.
“At the moment we all care about customer cards. Then we have transactions, prices and promotions, which will slow down the process,” she said. Since most customer card applications are filled out at the cashier, all content has been backed up. This undermines the last advantage that department stores provide customers, which is the original spaciousness of space compared with specialty retailers. The welcome discount is self-explanatory.
If someone wants to exchange goods from another branch, the cashier must manually enter all the error-prone things. Contactless card payments, which became more and more popular during the corona pandemic, often crash EC card readers. Müllenbach listened for a long time-then he confirmed almost all the criticisms from his own point of view and promised to improve.
“Calm leadership style”
Some people who know him attest to his “come and calm management style.” “In the weeks when the whole world is excited, this may be the only stable thing,” a person from the corporate environment said of Galeria Karstadt during the long lockdown week. Kaufhof Surviving after bankruptcy directly led to the next crisis for myself.
The 45-year-old Müllenbach has been with the company for a long time. He started working in Karstadt in 2005, where he was promoted all the way to chief financial officer. After the company merged with Kaufhof, he was also responsible for the finances of the new department store group. Müllenbach has seen many bosses come and go. He even became the managing director during the crisis: June 2020, when the company had to escape into the protective shield proceedings.
In the rescue plan, creditors gave up 2 billion euros, cut thousands of jobs, and closed 50 branches. Müllenbach also manages 131 department stores with approximately 18,000 employees—it is not easy to give them courage again at a time when the future of the city center is controversial and online retail is growing unprecedentedly.
Senior Criticism
“Contacting employees is very important for me,” Müllenbach said. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in personal conversations, in regular letters to employees, or in formats such as recent podcasts. “But for me, listening is almost more important. We haven’t done enough in the past,” he said. After completing his apprenticeship in banking and business administration in Cologne, the manager first worked for the Otto Group and then for Fielmann Optical. It is said that his communication is more transparent than any other boss before him.
This crisis brought together employees, at least those who were allowed to stay. “But now we need this kind of openness in the last few meters of getting along because of the new communication culture support,” Müllenbach’s direct environment said. People don’t say this because they are afraid of their boss-just like some of their predecessors.
The digitalization of the company is one of them. Before the pandemic, Karstadt Kaufhof’s online sales share was less than 5%, and the department store group still lags behind other competitors. But Mullenbach showed confidence because he was stuck to his nose everywhere. The manager said: “After losing contact for many years, we just focused on using blockade to completely restructure ourselves digitally-both in front of and behind the scenes.” This will be visible to customers in the winter, and the company has already benefited from it.
The company is currently spending 400 million euros to renovate its branches, of which 50 to 60 of 131 department stores will be fully renovated, and other parts will be partially renovated. Müllenbach is planning three different categories, which he confidently refers to as “Weltstadthaus”, “Regional Magnet” and “Local Forum”. They are designed to address different target groups on site, including plans to reduce their own sales area and provide services such as city services, parcel counters or electric bicycle stations. The vice president of the HDE Industry Association believes in the city center anyway. Without it, this position might not work. In contrast, he doesn’t believe in his own brand so much. The well-known brands Karstadt and Kaufhof should disappear. The name of the website has been called Galeria.de.
It is not clear whether the 200 million euros that will flow into e-commerce business, logistics and IT expansion are enough. Competitors’ expenses are much higher, but Müllenbach only needs to save money. After all, the group has received a loan of 460 million euros from the state and is still in negotiations. Of course there is also a need for communication.
