Almost seven months after the merger of the two department store chains, the SIGNA Group acquired all shares in the GALERIA department store group in June of 2019. This resulted in Germany’s number one department store chain (number two in Europe).
GaleriaManagement
Miguel Müllenbach
Miguel Müllenbach has been Managing Director of GALERIA Karstadt Kaufhof since June of 2020. Prior to that, he was CFO of the company since November of 2018 and was responsible for the Controlling, Finance and Accounting, Tax and Legal areas. He was the CFO of Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH since 2012, and before that, he held various positions at Karstadt from April of 2005 onwards.
Guido Mager
Guido Mager has been a member of GALERIA Karstadt Kaufhof’s management team since November of 2019. Before that, he was the Managing Director of GALERIA Kaufhof GmbH, starting in November 2015. Here he was responsible for the Financial Affairs, Tax and Real Estate areas of the Kaufhof Group in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Prior to that, starting in April of 2007, Mr. Mager headed the Accounting, Financial Statements, Tax and Treasury areas for the company. As a trained tax consultant and auditor, he began his professional career in auditing and consulting, with Dr. Harzem und Partner WPG/StbG from mid-1987 and then with KPMG in Cologne starting in January of 1992.
In 2018, SIGNA and HBC had merged the two department store chains under SIGNA’s operative management. Since then, the management team has initiated a comprehensive integration process. The goal is to make the department stores future-proof and to create one of the leading omni-channel providers in the digital age.
As a part of the agreement, SIGNA also acquired all shares of the previously joint European real estate portfolio from HBC. Before the agreement, the two companies had each owned 50 percent of the portfolio.
Just a few months after the successful merger, a new umbrella brand was introduced, and the two department stores were united under it: ‘GALERIA’. The brand’s core and promise: “We make life easier and shopping more fun for our customers – in the city and everywhere else.”