Decoration chain wants to close over 100 branches

Großostheim – Extreme Bitter news from German retail: The well-known decoration chain Depot will probably have to close significantly more branches than originally planned. Hundreds of employees of the insolvent company have to go now!

Only 50 branches will carry the depot logo in the future, the “Lebensmittel Zeitung” (LZ) reports. So far there are still 155 stores. Absolute horror news for the workforce, which the managing director Christian Gries is said to have announced. The founder’s grandson is said to have also informed via an internal message that numerous employees would be released from August 1st.

So many employees are affected

That should This affects 220 branch employees and 110 other employees from headquarters and the field service. The head of GDC Deutschland GmbH in Großostheim near Aschaffenburg (Bavaria) – which runs the Depot branch – could not be reached by BILD by phone or email. Administrator Thomas Rittmeister did not want to comment when asked by BILD.

Meanwhile, anxious times are beginning for the decoration chain’s workforce. According to the LZ report, the released employees will only receive their July salaries through the insolvency money. The preliminary insolvency proceedings are currently underway at Depot under self-administration, the regular proceedings are scheduled to open on August 1st.

Second insolvency in a short space of time

A total crash in several files. In May it was announced that Depot is bankrupt again and for the second time Insolvency filed with the Aschaffenburg district court.At the end of June it was said that 66 branches of the Deko chain must close The first insolvency proceedings started in 2024 and ended with the closure of 250 stores and the termination of contracts 2000 employees throughout Germany.

How the bankruptcy came about

The reason for the renewed economic Problems? As the LZ writes, there is no longer enough money to pay the salaries of all 1,200 employees. The background to the crisis: increased import tariffs and competition from Asian trading platforms with significantly cheaper offers. In addition, customers are holding back on purchases in Retail