Electronics mail order company Conrad, based in Hirschau, Bavaria, will close almost all of its branches in Germany over the course of this year and focus primarily on online trading. The company wants to adapt to the trend of private customers to shop more online. Conrad currently operates eleven branches.
The company explains that this trend of increased online shopping by private customers has accelerated significantly in the last two years of the corona pandemic. As a result of the previously observed development, there was already a change in strategy and restructuring of the company several years ago to become a B2B procurement platform for technical operating requirements active in Europe, with which the company sees itself on the right track.
Nine of eleven locations will be closed
Conrad currently operates eleven branches in Berlin, Bonn, Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Hürth, Mannheim, Munich and Regensburg and Wernberg-Koeblitz in Germany. The branch in Hürth has existed since early summer 2020 and is the company's first purely B2B branch. Conrad wants to continue and expand this format, as the announced search for additional locations for B2B branches makes clear.
Branch in Wernberg-Köblitz will remain
The nine branches for private customers are affected by the closures, with the tenth branch in Wernberg-Köblitz being an exception and the only one to continue to be operated. In Wernberg-Köblitz, Conrad Electronic SE, based in Hirschau, 17 km away, operates a branch and a logistics center in the industrial area. However, all other locations are to be closed in the course of the year. Affected employees were informed at an early stage in order to find “socially acceptable regulations” and could apply for vacancies within the company.
Of course, this step is very difficult for us. We have therefore informed our employees at an early stage and are in talks to find socially acceptable regulations and to live up to our social responsibility. Of course, employees from the branches have the opportunity to apply for vacancies within the Conrad Group.
Ralf Bühler, CEO of Conrad Electronic SE
Conrad Connect discontinued because of B2B focus
Conrad's focus on B2B business was already evident at the end of last year when the smart home platform Conrad Connect was surprisingly discontinued on December 16, as a notification to users of the service revealed. Even then, it was said that Conrad wanted to focus more on B2B business as part of a current restructuring process, while Conrad Connect was aimed in particular at end customers, which is why the service was discontinued. The closure of almost all branches to private customers is a logical continuation of this strategy.
Update 07/13/2022 09:02
In a message to business partners, Conrad announced that after the closures branch closures are imminent in Germany and Austria. Five of the six locations are to be closed by the end of 2022, only the Conrad Megastore in Linz will remain open, according to the statement.
The closures are justified by changed shopping habits, which in times of the pandemic would have shifted more towards online trading than they already did. In the next few weeks, Conrad wants to approach the business partners with specific suggestions on how to continue business relationships based on partnership. Obligations entered into, contractual loyalty and liquidity are assured by Conrad to the business partners in advance.
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