Companies

Insolvent Görtz finds a new investor

Apr 17, 2023 Germany

The Hamburg-based shoe retailer has announced that the couple Leonie and Burkhard von Wangenheim acquired a 100% stake in the company that went into bankruptcy last September

This deal was made through the Fürderhin limited liability company as part of the protective shield procedure. Leonie serves as Fürderhin's managing director, while her husband, Burckhard, is a partner at Afinum Management, which held a 40% stake in the shoe retailer from 2014 to 2020, says Shoe Intelligence. Görtz had already announced in mid-February that it had found a long-term oriented private investor, but only now disclosed its identity.

“The investor is convinced of the potential of the business model based on an increasing interlocking of the channels, especially with a view to a new optimized Germany-wide branch network. There is still some homework to be done, such as the implementation of the recovery plan, but we are starting the new future full of vigour”, commented the company’s CEO at the time. The restructuring plan will be submitted to the insolvency court, and if approved Görtz will exit insolvency. Its current CEO, Frank Revermann, and the Chief Financial Officer, Tobias Volgmann, will remain in their roles.

The shoe retailer had been struggling since the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving in 2021 a 28 million euros capital injection from the German Federal Government's Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF). But this aid was not enough, with the company taking yet another blow from the soaring inflation recorded last year, going into bankruptcy in September 2022. As the sales dropped, the company began a reorganization effort closing - or planning to - around half of its 160 stores and reducing its employees to 1 300 from the original 1 800.

Image Credits: shoes-report.com

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