The Wuppertal-based shoe retailer Klauser (formerly: Klauser/Salamander) announces a change at the top of the business: 58-year-old Lothar Schäfer will be succeeded by 45-year-old Christian Hoppe, who will now act as sole managing director.
In his career, Hoppe has worked at companies such as Peek&Cloppenburg, Engelhorn and the shirt manufacturer van Laack. “We are happy to have an experienced retail expert on board who brings a lot of experience in sales and purchasing,” the company said.
Lothar Schäfer will leave the company at his own request by the end of the month. Other opportunities have arisen this year that he would like to focus on in the future. Former Klauser managing director Franz Walter Wiest will advise Hoppe.
Generation change at Klauser
Klauser sees the generational change as an opportunity to approach the aftermath of the grueling challenges the company has recently faced with new perspectives. At the end of 2022, Klauser/Salamander announced insolvency proceedings under self-administration, which were opened in February 2023. The two companies Klauser and Salamander were then taken over by a new owner in September 2023. Prime Footwear Investors was formed by a group of managers with knowledge and experience in the shoe industry and retail. At the time, these included Franz Walter Wiest, the Brandstetter-Finger family, Convergenta Beteiligungsgesellschaft as the main shareholder, and the entrepreneurs Peter Prange, Günter Althaus and Lothar Schäfer. Wiest and Schäfer joined the management team when the takeover took place, which took place immediately after the end of the protective shield proceedings in the same month.
The next shock came in April 2024: a cyber attack forced the company’s entire backend to a standstill. To secure data and systems, all IT systems were shut down during this process. In May, all systems were already active, with the priority being on the stores, before the online shop was also reactivated.
As a result, the company recently wrote a letter to the industry. In the letter, Klauser recommended that suppliers suspend deliveries until they receive a signal from the company again, despite the stores being back in normal operation. This request was merely a precautionary measure, as the cyber attack and the current trading situation in particular have recently left their mark. Klauser currently owns 67 stores, which operate equally under the names Klauser and Salamander.
