Final Day for Remaining Kika/Leiner Branches

After 115 years, the company history of the furniture retailer Leiner comes to an end. Kika/Leiner will close the remaining 17 locations after business hours on Wednesday. Around 1,350 employees will lose their jobs. The formerly largest furniture chain in Austria has been in crisis for some time: Since 2013, there have been three changes of ownership and two insolvencies. As no new investor was found, the chain filed for bankruptcy in early December.

Kika/Leiner's Clearance Sale

The clearance sale at Kika/Leiner has been running since December, and since January 24th, the furniture chain has been offering a 90 percent discount on all available goods. The St. Pölten lawyer Volker Leitner is handling the liquidation of the company as bankruptcy administrator.

At the Leiner branch in Vienna West in Hadikgasse, over 50 shoppers and onlookers gathered after the store opened at 09:30 on Wednesday. Only packaged individual items on the ground floor are still being sold, the other floors were already closed and cleared out. "There's almost nothing left," said one unsuccessful bargain hunter when leaving the branch to the APA. Out of consideration for the employees, the bankruptcy administrator did not grant the media permission to take photos or film in the Kika/Leiner stores on the last day of opening.

All 1,350 employees will lose their jobs in the coming months. Those affected in Lower Austria and Vienna can take advantage of a job foundation if needed and receive further training. Long-term Kika/Leiner employees will only be without a salary in the summer or autumn due to longer notice periods. The furniture chain has many employees who have been on board for more than ten years. After five years of company affiliation, retail employees can only be dismissed quarterly.

In the bankruptcy proceedings of the furniture chain, claims amounting to 265 million were registered by the reporting date at the St. Pölten Regional Court in mid-January. According to creditor protectors, this includes conditional rent damage claims from Supernova - the owner of the Kika/Leiner furniture stores - amounting to 190 million euros. "After the operational liquidation of the furniture stores, the legal processing of the insolvency will take place," says credit protector Stephan Mazal from Creditreform in a press release. "By February, an expert opinion should clarify when insolvency occurred."

Great Past

The decline of the furniture retailer, founded in 1915, began with the aggressive expansion policy of the domestic competitor XXXLutz in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2013, the South African Steinhoff Group acquired the domestic furniture giant from the then owner family Koch. At that time, Kika/Leiner, with around 7,500 employees at 73 locations in Austria and Eastern Europe and a turnover of 1.2 billion euros, was still the second largest furniture retailer after XXXLutz.

In 2018, Steinhoff sold the furniture chain in a distress sale to the Signa Group around Tyrolean investor René Benko. The new owner sold the Kika branches in Eastern Europe to XXXLutz. In 2023, Benko's Signa sold the Kika/Leiner properties to the Graz real estate developers Supernova and the operational furniture business to retail manager Hermann Wieser. Shortly afterwards, the company filed for bankruptcy for the first time. After the second bankruptcy in November 2024, Wieser was unable to raise fresh financial resources or find an investor.

Sale or Rental in Preparation

Supernova, the owner of the Kika/Leiner furniture stores, is now preparing for the sale or long-term rental of the properties. "Unfortunately, we can't say more about this at the moment, the process will certainly take several months," said a Supernova spokesperson in response to an APA inquiry.

The city of Salzburg would like to see new apartments on the Leiner site in the south of the state capital. The plan is for exclusively subsidised apartments, 80 percent of which will be rental and the rest condominiums. "I confronted the owner with these specifications before Christmas. He is still interested, and now it will be about working out the details," said Mayor Bernhard Auinger (SPÖ). However, Eugendorf's Mayor Robert Bimminger (ÖVP) has no concrete ideas yet for the utilisation of the Kika property. He rules out a rezoning for residential construction in this location right next to the motorway. Currently, the area is only dedicated to furniture retail, a construction or garden market. If an owner comes up with a coherent, conclusive concept that brings added value, a rezoning would be possible.

The two locations of the furniture chain in Graz - the Kika house at the Webling roundabout near the West Shopping Center - and the Leiner house at the beginning of the former magnificent shopping mile Annenstraße at the main station - are likely to continue to be used. The restaurants at both locations have been closed since the end of 2024. Furniture retail is expected to continue in the Kika in Webling, but details are still missing. In the Leiner on Annenstraße, there could be a mixed business structure in the future.

In Lower Austria, five Kika/Leiner locations were still open until recently - in St. Pölten, Vösendorf, Wiener Neustadt, Krems and Langenrohr (Tulln district). In the state capital, where the corporate headquarters is located, there have already been discussions with potential interested parties, according to the town hall. "There are various ideas/considerations for this - some already very concrete, both for the warehouse in St. Pölten and for the branch location," said the city council in response to an APA inquiry. However, the city is not the owner, it was emphasised. The ÖVP St. Pölten had suggested in December 2024 to check whether the furniture dealer's warehouse in Zdarskystraße could be an alternative location to the Rewe logistics centre planned in the St. Georgen district. This would significantly reduce the land consumption for the construction project, and flood protection would also not be an issue here, said the People's Party.

Ikea Interested in Former Kika Branch in Dornbirn?

The furniture corporation Ikea might be interested in the former Kika branch in Dornbirn. The Swedish furniture giant does not yet have its own location in Vorarlberg. According to media reports, there has already been contact between Ikea and the owner of the property, but nothing is fixed yet. Ikea wanted to settle just a few kilometres from the Kika location in Lustenau a few years ago. However, there was resistance from the population due to the expected traffic load, and a referendum was scheduled. Ikea then withdrew its expansion to Vorarlberg before the vote was held.

A fitness studio moved into the Kika building in Eisenstadt in the summer of 2024, which now wants to expand its area. The branch in Unterwart (Oberwart district) was acquired by XXXLutz - a Möbelix is to be established here in the medium term. Part of the area is to be used differently, how is still open, it was said from the town hall.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.