Furniture chain Kika/Leiner is bankrupt again, affecting 1,400 employees

26 June 2013: The South African Steinhoff Group acquires the local furniture giant from the Koch family who own it. At that time, Kika/Leiner was the second largest furniture retailer in Austria after XXXLutz, with around 7,500 employees at 73 locations and a turnover of 1.2 billion euros.

January 5, 2018: The ailing Kika/Leiner owner Steinhoff is selling the Leiner flagship store on Vienna’s Mariahilfer Straße to the Tyrolean real estate billionaire Rene Benko and his Signa. The then Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Justice Minister Josef Moser were said to have been involved in the rescue operation, according to media reports at the time.

22 June 2018: Benko is taking over Kika/Leiner completely; according to media reports, between 430 and 490 million euros will be invested.

2018 – Four branches will be closed in August and 1,100 employees will have to leave in September.

13. November 2018: The furniture store gets a new boss who loudly announces: There will be no further reductions in staff, and they want to be in the profit zone in three years. New boss Reinhold Gutebier said he wanted to lead Kika/Leiner back to the “Champions League”.

24. May 2019: 22 Kika furniture stores in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania will go to the Upper Austrian furniture chain XXXLutz.

February 25, 2020: Kika/Leiner managing director Gutebier exudes confidence: “We will reach black zero in 2021 as planned,” he said, without revealing sales figures. Gutebier wants to achieve the turnaround with, among other things, growth in the kitchen business, a higher share of own brands and more online sales. The number of employees of around 4,500 is expected to grow again in the medium term.

30 June 2020: two former Kika/Leiner branches go to XXXLutz.

14 Oct. 2021: According to its own statements, the furniture store reached “black zero” three years after the Signa takeover. Gutebier does not provide any details on sales and earnings development.

31. May 2023: According to a media report, Benko is selling all Kika/Leiner properties to the Supernova Group of the German specialist store entrepreneur Frank Albert for “just under 400 million euros”. At this point, the chain has around 3,900 employees.

1 June 2023: It is known that Signa is selling its operational business in addition to Kika/Leiner real estate. It goes to a management team led by Hermann Wieser.

12 June 2023: The new owner of Kika/Leiner’s operational business is applying for restructuring proceedings without self-administration. The unsecured claims amount to 132 million euros. 23 of 40 locations are to be closed at the end of July and 1,900 of 3,900 employees will be laid off. The central departments and administration are also to be “significantly” reduced in size. There is great criticism that the previous owner René Benko ran the company down before selling it – which Benko denies.

9 October 2024: Kika/Leiner, as the company is now called, announces that the number of employees fell from 1,900 to 1,400 over the course of the year. Sales fell by 13 percent in the first half of the year. But none of the remaining 17 branches should be closed. There are also no plans to sell the company. The renovation should be completed in September 2025.

12. November 2024: The company announces its insolvency.