kika (furniture store)

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kika MöbelhandelsgesmbH.

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1973
Seat AustriaAustria St. Poelten , Austria
management Reinhold Gütebier
Number of employees kika / Leiner Group:
5600 employees in Austria,
another 1600 in Eastern Europe
sales around one billion euros
Branch Furniture retail
Website www.kika.at

The kika furniture Handelsgesellschaft mbH is an Austrian furniture retail firm with headquarters in St. Pölten .

history

In 1973 Herbert Koch , son-in-law of Rudolf Leiner Junior, opened the first kika furniture store on Kreilplatz in Vienna -Heiligenstadt. The concept ("Cash and Carry", collection by the customer) was new and successful in Austria. From the initial take-away market, a “full-service” furniture store with a wide range of products and services has emerged, ranging from the entry-level price segment to high-value assortments.

18 Leiner and 32 kika furniture stores have opened on the Austrian market since the company was founded. In 2000, expansion was continued with the kika international sales channel. The focus of expansion is on the Central and Eastern European markets. There are currently seven locations in Hungary , six in the Czech Republic , four in Slovakia , three in Croatia and one in Romania. The kika furniture store, which opened in Prague in June 2005, is the largest furniture store in the Czech Republic with over 31,000 m². In April 2006 the first kika furniture store in Croatia was opened in Zagreb. It is the largest furniture / equipment store in Croatia. In December 2008 the first kika furniture store was opened in Bucharest / Romania.

With “k-Franchise”, kika also acted as a franchisor and opened two furniture stores in Riyadh and Dhahran in Saudi Arabia . These franchise activities have meanwhile been terminated.

The retail chain was named Austria's best online shop in 2005.

All kika furniture stores are supplied from the logistics center in St. Pölten , which has almost 100,000 m² of storage space and 30,000 shelf spaces. An average of 41,000 m³ of goods are shipped every month.

Since autumn 2013, the company has been wholly owned by the South African Steinhoff Group , which bought the company for 375 million euros.

In February 2017 there are 21 Lipo locations as part of the Steinhoff Group in Switzerland. In March 2017, the first two stores of the “Lipo” discount line opened in Austria. These two branches are to be closed again with a decision from March 2018.

The furniture retail group kika / Leiner / Lipo, based in St. Pölten, announced on March 19, 2018 that it had completed its location review. 46 of the group's 50 locations will remain. Four, for which no future is seen, will be closed: the Lipo branches in Ansfelden and Langenzersdorf , the Leiner branch in Bruck an der Mur and a kika branch in Wolfsberg (Carinthia) . The restructuring also affects the supplier relationships, the merchandise management system, the IT and the processes in the service warehouses. The company sees a positive future, a third branch was only opened in Prague in mid-March.

After "turbulence" at the parent company Steinhoff, credit insurance was canceled at the beginning of June 2018 and, according to KSV kika / Leiner, threatened bankruptcy with the obligation to pay out vacation pay at the end of June 2018. After XXXLutz was rumored to be interested in a takeover, it was announced on June 14, 2018 that Signa Holding of the Tyrolean real estate investor René Benko would buy the furniture chain Kika / Leiner from Steinhoff. After the purchase was approved - prematurely - by the competition authority, the purchase became legally valid.

On August 16, 2018 it became known that two more kika branches would have to close, in Vösendorf ( Lower Austria ) and Spittal an der Drau ( Carinthia ). According to a press report, up to 1,100 employees will be laid off as a result of the closings .

Key figures

  • The company ( Leiner and kika) employs around 7,700 people.
  • Together with the furniture stores of the Leiner Group, the group generated sales of EUR 1.265 billion.

Kika furniture stores

Kika in Dornbirn

Austria

Kika locations in Austria 2019:

Kika branches 2019

Other European countries

Kika in Prague
Kika in Netanya

Web links

Commons : Kika  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gertrud Hussla: Karstadt owner René Benko takes over Steinhoff daughter. In: Handelsblatt . June 14, 2018, accessed December 1, 2018.
  2. ↑ EU Commission: Steinhoff may take over Kika / Leiner | EUWID furniture. In: euwid-moebel.de, November 5, 2013, accessed on December 1, 2018.
  3. ↑ Kika / Leiner starts discount line Lipo in Austria. In: diepresse.com, February 16, 2017, accessed March 20, 2018.
  4. ↑ Kika / Leiner: Four locations close, 46 remain. In: orf.at, March 20, 2018, accessed March 20, 2018.
  5. ↑ Rene Benko's Signa buys kika / Leiner. In: orf.at, June 14, 2018, accessed June 15, 2018.
  6. ↑ kika / Leiner: Competition authority approves purchase. In: orf.at, July 9, 2018, accessed on July 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ Kika / Leiner is cutting over 1000 jobs . In: news.ORF.at . August 16, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed August 16, 2018]).
  8. ^ Tough savings course at kika / Leiner . August 16, 2018 ( orf.at [accessed August 16, 2018]).
  9. ↑ a b locations. In: kika.at. Retrieved March 6, 2019 .