Karstadt Warenhaus and its Austrian parent company, Signa Retail, have taken a stake of 70 percent in Hood.de, a popular German marketplace, in order to turn the department store group into an omni-channel marketplace. The shares were formally bought by Karstadt Marktplatz, a joint venture between Karstadt Warenhaus and Signa Retail, which also owns separately the big chain of Karstadt Sports stores in Germany. The remaining 30 percent in Hood will continue to be held by the marketplace's founder, Ryan Hood.
Karstadt said that Hood will continue to be run independently, while working together with Karstadt to grow the business and to develop a common online store. The department store group, which has 79 often prominent locations in Germany, described Hood.de as one of the fastest-growing marketplaces in the country, with 7 million customers.
Established 17 years ago, Hood provides a platform for private and commercial partners to offer articles for sale in more than 20,000 categories. About 5,000 dealers are currently offering over 5 million articles on Hood.de. Karstadt added that its new asset is one of the few marketplaces that generate clear profit.
The German group said the takeover is the next step in the strategy pushed forward by Stephan Fanderl, Karstadt's chief executive, to move toward a multi-partner business model in all marketing and sales channels. Based on this strategy, dubbed “Marketplace of Tomorrow,” Karstadt Marktplatz aims to seal further partnerships and acquisitions.
Shortly after the Hood.de deal, it turned out that Signa Retail also acquired 60 percent of the shares in Mybestbrands.de, which was described as Germany's largest online mall for premium and luxury fashion products. The buyer said that the other 40 percent should remain under the management of Jörg Domesle, one of the founders of Mybestbrands.
For the purpose of the acquisition, Signa has established Signa Luxury Marketplace, which is to drive further partnerships and acquisitions in this category. Mybestbrands focuses on brands such as Burberry, Gucci and Balenciaga, which run their own shops on the online platform. It reported a gross merchandise volume in the range of €100 million last year. Signa is already active in the premium market through KaDeWe.
The Austrian group pointed out that Mybestbrands was the seventh purchase by Signa Retail in the last 14 months in the online retail sector. It already has more than 125 physical stores and 54 online stores operating in over 15 countries, employing about 20,000 people and reaching a group-wide turnover of about €3.8 billion. Its latest acquisitions include Internetstores, the company behind Bikester, Campz, fahrrad.de, Brügelmann and Addnature, and Probikeshop.
