Krone (company)
| HL Krone GmbH
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | circa 1975 |
| resolution | 1998 |
| Reason for dissolution | insolvency |
| Seat | Poing b. Munich |
| Branch | Grocery retail |
The Krone GmbH was a supermarket chain and a 100% subsidiary of Kathreiner AG in Poing near Munich . It was founded around 1975 and was dissolved by the bankruptcy of the AG in 1998. It was deleted from the commercial register on January 2, 2012.
history
The history of the Krone supermarkets and hypermarkets arises from the development of Kathreiner AG. Kathreiner AG, based in Poing near Munich, concentrated more on wholesaling after selling coffee and food production. To this end, some new sales lines were created in the mid-1970s, including Krone GmbH. Within a short period of time, new supermarkets and hypermarkets were created under the name Krone and Krone-Center. This especially in southern Germany. In addition to the supermarkets, hardware stores were also opened under the name Krone-Baumarkt. In some cities like Waldkraiburg or Burghausen, entire shopping centers were created under Krone GmbH. Krone-Centers were also often opened as anchor tenants in shopping centers, for example in the pep shopping center in Munich or in the Donau-Passage in Passau .
New federal states
In 1990 expansion into the new federal states began. A new company, Kathreiner Vertriebsgesellschaft Ost mbH, was founded specifically for expansion. Kathreiner AG tried to be particularly well represented in the new federal states. At peak times, for example, two new stores were opened per week. As before, the new markets were mostly built on the "green field", i.e. outside the city centers on the outskirts, in order to have enough space for large new buildings. Kathreiner AG wanted to be one step ahead of the competition. In the first few years the concept seemed to work. The "New Markets" provided Krone GmbH and Kathreiner AG with an increase in sales of over 11% and sales of over DM 2 billion in the 1993/94 financial year.
Slump in sales
But just a year later, sales dropped significantly. The competition never slept and put a lot of pressure on Krone GmbH. Some customers stayed away just a few weeks after the opening. Prices had to be drastically reduced, while rental and land prices continued to rise. A decline in sales was reported as early as 1995. The costs of the markets could no longer be covered due to the deteriorating turnover.
In 1996 the first exploratory talks began. The supervisory board tried to sell the markets, which are particularly weak in sales, in the east. About 30 stores could be sold to competitors such as the Schwarz Group , Spar Handelsgesellschaft or Tengelmann Group . In the same year the entire wholesale business was sold to Spar Handelsgesellschaft for 100 million DM. The first rumors about a sale of all sales companies made the rounds. In the following months, attempts were made to sell further loss-making markets to interested parties. But this failed due to a lack of interest at the beginning of 1997. Now Kathreiner AG tried to completely sell some sales lines. So you could sell almost 36 Krone supermarkets to the Spar trading company. But the remaining 63 hypermarkets also had to be sold. But this sale was also delayed and brought the company further red numbers. In the business year 1996/97 a loss of over 100 million DM was made.
insolvency
As a result, insolvency proceedings had to be filed in December 1997. The Munich lawyer Eckhart Müller-Heydenreich was chosen as the insolvency administrator . With his help, it was possible to sell at least 28 of the remaining hypermarkets before the insolvency proceedings were opened at the Munich district court on March 1, 1998 only one month later. During the process, CADI Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH, which is also wholly owned by Kathreiner AG, was sold to a foreign investment company, thus securing jobs for all 603 employees. On March 14, 1998 it was announced that BayWa AG would buy the two Krone DIY megastores with garden centers in Poing near Munich and Burghausen. The purchase price for both markets is not known. A few hypermarkets could still be sold, especially in the southern area, before Kathreiner AG and thus also Krone GmbH were completely dissolved at the end of 1998. All of the remaining stores that were not sold had to be closed in mid-1998 without a successor. Of the approx. 3100 employees at the beginning of the insolvency proceedings, approx. 2600 employees continued to be employed through sales afterwards.
On July 30, 1997 the deletion of HL Krone GmbH was requested from the Commercial Register of the Munich Local Court. The deletion took effect on January 2, 2012. The company is therefore no longer capable of acting and doing business.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lebensmittelzeitung from June 23, 1995
- ↑ Lebensmittelzeitung from July 19, 1996
- ↑ Lebensmittelzeitung from November 15, 1996
- ↑ Lebensmittelzeitung from February 7, 1997
- ↑ Lebensmittelzeitung from March 7, 1997
- ↑ Lebensmittelzeitung from September 19, 1997
- ^ Nutrition Service of March 14, 1998
- ↑ Homepage of the law firm MHBK http://www.mhbk.de/verfahren_bedeutend.html?no=28&name=Kathreiner_AG
- ↑ Extract from the commercial register https://www.handelsregister.de