Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof GmbH, based in

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

, Germany, is the second largest

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

group in Europe, with 131 locations and 18,000 employees. The company was formed in 2018 with the merger of two of Germany's most historic department store chains,

Galeria Kaufhof Galeria Kaufhof GmbH was a German department store chain, headquartered in Cologne. It was a member of the International Association of Department Stores from 1930 to 2010, with various CEOs acting as presidents of the Association over time. U ...

and

Karstadt Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH was a German department store chain whose headquarters were in Essen. Until 30 September 2010 the company was a subsidiary of Arcandor AG (which was known until 30 June 2007 as KarstadtQuelle AG) and was responsible wi ...

. On August 20, 2021, it was announced that all stores of both chains would be rebranded as Galeria. The first three stores and the online store were rebranded on October 27, 2021, with remaining stores following. The company suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic and in 2020 announced plans to close 62 of its 172 stores. In January 2022, it received €250 million in federal aid, after having received a €460 million loan from the economic stabilization fund in 2021. In November, the chain announced it had filed for the German equivalent of insolvency for a second time and planned to close a third of its 131 locations.

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* * German companies established in 2018 Companies based in Essen Retail companies of Germany Department stores of Germany {{Germany-company-stub