A study by the market research institute Verian on behalf of the management consultancy FTI-Andersch has shown that 36% of retailers want to initiate or complete a restructuring this year. Of retailers planning to restructure, 83% are considering a strategic realignment. 50% are considering targeted measures to cut jobs in order to reduce costs. In industry, however, only 26% of companies are considering job cuts. 17% of retail companies that are restructuring are planning to close branches.
In general, retailers see themselves in a poor economic situation. 48% of those surveyed expect business development to be worse than in the previous year. In addition, traders are afraid that bankruptcies will become a problem for the entire industry. 34% expect that there could be a wave of bankruptcies. 24% see themselves as existentially threatened if something like this happens. “Insolvencies can quickly lead to a domino effect: customers and suppliers collapse, discount battles increase, financiers become more and more skeptical and the attractiveness of city centers continues to decline,” explains Dorothée Fritsch, Managing Director and retail expert at FTI-Andersch, the consulting unit specializing in restructuring, business transformation and transactions FTI Consulting in Germany.