There are people who still believe in department stores.
And that even in the age of the internet.
The Austrian entrepreneur René Benko is one of them, or Tos Chirathivat, the CEO of the Thai Central Group, which has built up a billion-dollar fortune with department stores over the past 80 years.
The two of them jointly raise 150 of the total of around 300 million euros with which the Berlin KaDeWe has been completely renovated for a few years.
The other half is borne by the partners, i.e. those labels that are licensed by KaDeWe: Gucci, Dior and Louis Vuitton, for example, who, like many other brands, are rebuilding their sales areas there.
Inge Kloepfer
Freelance writer in business for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin.
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"The way we are now renovating, it only happens every 30 to 40 years," says André Maeder from Switzerland, head of the KaDeWe Group since 2014, which not only includes KaDeWe, but also the Oberpollinger department store in Munich and the Alsterhaus in Hamburg belong.
"If not only the shareholders, but also the partners believe in this concept, then it cannot be completely wrong." For all three houses together, the total investment amounts to half a billion euros.
The flagship, however, the “Kaufhaus des Westens”, gets the largest share.
The emperor did not come
The KaDeWe has always worked as a department store - again and again with a boom. And that, although it didn't look like it at first. The manageable suburb of Schöneberg, of all places, was chosen by the merchant Adolf Jandorf from Baden-Württemberg and living in Berlin for the location of his first luxury department store and opened its doors in 1907. The emperor did not come, but in the autumn of the same year King Rama V from Thailand, which at that time was still called Siam, stayed for two days. Thirteen years later, Jandorf's department store was in the center of west Berlin when Schöneberg became part of the capital. Sales rose steadily.
But who still needs a department store today? “A marketplace like it used to be in antiquity, where you can meet friends, chat, have a drink and maybe even buy something, people will also need it in the future,” says Maeder. In the KaDeWe Group, they are convinced that today's customers no longer consciously choose the Internet or stationary business. “The new generation will primarily be on the move digitally. But she still wants to experience something with all of her senses. ”Whoever visits KaDeWe sees what Maeder is talking about. The floors are full, upstairs in the “Food Hall” is bustling on weekends, it has become a meeting place for many young adults.
Hardly anyone in the KaDeWe group sees the Internet as a threat to adventure shopping. The numbers seem to confirm this: the department store is alive, especially KaDeWe, which is in a league with Harrods or Selfridges in London. A good 400 million euros in sales were generated there in 2019, even before the pandemic, with 12 million visitors a year. At its peak, 50,000 streamed through the six floors in one day. Together with the Alsterhaus and Oberpollinger, sales amounted to a little over 600 million euros. Since the opening after the lockdown in May, according to Maeder, monthly sales have now returned to the level of 2019 - but due to the pandemic (still) 25 percent fewer visitors. After all, the majority of the tourists are missing. But the individual spends more. "We always saidthat with the renovation with the existing houses in 2025/26 we will be at one billion, ”says Maeder. The KaDeWe alone has a potential of 650 million euros in annual sales when the renovation is completed - and is the third most important sight in Berlin.
It became difficult during the Nazi era
By the way, it has always been a sight - with an eventful history. At the end of the 1920s, Jandorf sold his company to the Jewish trading company Hermann Tietz OHG. It became difficult during the Nazi era. Two dispute agreements gradually pushed the Jewish family out of the company. Hermann Tietz OHG became Hertie GmbH, which from then on ran the department store. And she kept its gates open as long as possible. It wasn't until an American fighter plane crashed into the building in November 1943 that it was over. When the first two floors were reopened in 1950, Berliners were so euphoric that the doors had to be closed again after just a few minutes due to overcrowding. That could even happen again before Christmas this year, because then the topthe sixth, floor is finally ready.