Deichmann subsidiary secures specialist stores from the insolvent Darmstadt shoe retailer
The Deichmann subsidiary MyShoes SE is taking over eight specialist stores from the insolvent Darmstadt-based Dielmann Group in Bavaria and Hesse. The sale includes inventory, store equipment and trademark rights. Both sides agreed not to disclose the economic conditions of the transaction when signing the contract.
The transaction is scheduled to be completed on December 1, 2020 and is still subject to the fulfillment of various conditions, in particular approval by the Federal Cartel Office and the consent of the landlords. “We are very pleased that we have found a strong buyer in MyShoes, who will take over and further develop Dielmann’s eight specialist stores and 160 employees,” said Michael Specht, Managing Director of Schuhhaus Dielmann GmbH & Co. KG.
Meanwhile, the process continues for the remaining 18 Dielmann branches. “We are in very specific discussions with other interested parties and have great hope that we will be able to sell most of the businesses, if possible including the central functions of Dielmann, to a new owner,” says lawyer Dr. Georg Bernsau from the law firm K&L Gates, who would have been happy to keep Dielmann in its entirety and transfer it to an investor. “For reasons of insolvency law and taking into account the pandemic-related restrictions, we must act in the best possible interest of creditors. It has been shown that transferring the eight specialist stores to MyShoes and other stores to other potential investors is the best economic solution for our creditors,” adds Bernsau.
The investor process at Sporthaus Robert Hübner GmbH runs independently. The management there is in negotiations with prospective buyers for all eight stores. Results from the trial are expected in a few weeks. Concrete statements cannot therefore be made at this point in time.
The following stores will be transferred to MyShoes on December 1, 2020: Ansbach (Dielmann), Aschaffenburg (Rohrmeier), Bad Vilbel (Braun), Dreieich (Braun), Friedrichsdorf (Braun), Groß-Gerau (Dielmann), Reichelsheim (Geier), Viernheim (Dielmann)
In September 2020, Dielmann announced that it would close 13 branches of the Dielmann, DSTEP and Sommerkind brands in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate as of December 31, 2020 and terminate the employment contracts of 84 employees. At the end of September 2020, the branch in the ECE Center Ettlinger Tor in Karlsruhe, which had already been terminated before the protective shield procedure, was closed.
