Already in 2020, employees of the Kaufhof branch feared for their jobs. While the tremors went smoothly for Siegburg at the time, the time has now come: the restructuring plan for the ailing group includes the closure of 52 branches, according to GA information, the Siegburg Kaufhof on Kaiserstraße is one of them. At the end of January 2024, its doors are to close for good.

"My thoughts are now with the employees who were also surprised by this news," Siegburg's mayor Stefan Rosemann wrote about it on social media. "I hope that the management will find a good and social solution for the employees," it continues.

In the meantime, the city has contacted the owner of the property on Kaiserstraße, says the mayor. The main issue was the future of the building. Siegburg wants to participate in the planning for the future use of the property, in the immediate vicinity of which another commercial building, the Kaiser-Carré, is currently being built in the city centre.

Nevertheless, Rosemann is shocked by the news of the closure. "I have been in contact with the local branch management since the beginning of my term of office and we trusted in the good figures until the end," says the mayor. Unfortunately, the management had not kept its promise of 2021 and had not innovatively developed the location.

Sissis Vassiliadis, chairman of the Siegburg Tourist Association, also describes the news as a heavy blow for Siegburg and the region. "I didn't expect it," he admits. The Kaufhof is an attraction for many visitors to the city. With regard to the targeted date for the end of the Siegburg Kaufhof, he says: "There's not much time to think about what happens next." In his opinion, the city and the economic development agency are now called upon to develop concepts.

The mayor sees it similarly. The Office of Economic and Environmental Affairs of the City of Siegburg will do everything in its power to ensure that this news is seen as an opportunity and that the shopping city of Siegburg can continue to develop. "Siegburg's city centre continues to be popular with citizens beyond the region, as recent surveys have also shown," said Rosemann.

Local CDU member of parliament Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, on the other hand, hopes that the corporation can be persuaded to reverse the decision after all. "All local actors should now continue to work intensively on a solution that opens up a perspective for Galeria in Siegburg after all," she writes in a statement.

The building that houses Siegburg's Kaufhof, like the shops, belongs to the Austrian Signa Holding. What happens to it when Kaufhof moves out is therefore also in the hands of the group for the time being.

(Original text: Andrea Ziech; Translation: Mareike Graepel)