US retailer Foot Locker is taking its sports shoe subsidiary completely off the market
The US sports shoe retailer Foot Locker is taking the Runners Point brand completely off the market and will close all of the subsidiary's branches. A total of around 800 Runners Point employees are affected. “All branches will be closed,” a spokesman for the US company confirmed to the German Press Agency. This also applies to the branches in Austria and Switzerland. According to the annual report, there are 81 branches in the three countries. The chain store's headquarters in Recklinghausen with 170 employees is also to be closed.
The “assessment of our business activities and the competitive landscape in Germany over the past twelve months” led to the decision, said a spokesman. However, the brands Foot Locker and Sidestep will continue to be operated. The branches should remain open until an agreement is reached with the social partners on a reconciliation of interests.
The branches of the Foot Locker subsidiary Sidestep will in future be managed from the Foot Locker European headquarters in the Netherlands. According to the Foot Locker annual report, there are 77 Sidestep stores in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Runners Point was founded in 1984 and was a subsidiary of the Karstadt department store group until 2005. Since 2013, Runners Point and Sidestep have been part of the US company Food Locker, which has its European headquarters in the Netherlands. According to its own statements, the US retailer paid 200 million euros for the more than 72 branches in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
