On 17th July, GLOBUS signed the sale of 31 fashion stores. As of 1 February 2021, Bayard Co. Ltd, a Swiss fashion chain, and former Globus CEO will jointly acquire all former Schild and Herren-Globus (stand-alone men) stores as well as all Navyboot shoe stores of the GLOBUS Group. The aim of the new owners is to renovate, reposition and operate the stores profitably, depending on their size, location and potential, under the name of ‘Bayer Co Ltd’ or ‘Navyboot’. All employees will be retained by the buyers under the existing conditions.
For GLOBUS, this is another important step in its strategic focus on the luxury and premium department store business. "We have found the ideal buyers for our fashion stores. Our entire team is pleased with this speedy and, above all, sustainable solution for the employees", says Franco Savastano, CEO of GLOBUS.
Vittorio Radice, GLOBUS Chairman of the Board of Directors, states: “We are very pleased. GLOBUS is well on track in the first half of 2020 despite the coronavirus crisis; sales since reopening have been significantly above expectations and the restructuring measures, we initiated immediately are already showing positive effects. In addition, our online business is performing extremely well.”
He adds: “We will now be able to concentrate fully on positioning our department stores in the luxury and premium segment even earlier than planned, thereby focusing on the core competence that has shaped GLOBUS’ history for more than 100 years". In their innovative as well as digital repositioning of the department stores and the GLOBUS brand, the shareholders SIGNA and CENTRAL Group, together with numerous new brands, will invest more than CHF300mn (US$322mn) in the coming years.