Kaufhof has announced that it will shut down four insufficiently profitable department stores by the end of 2010, when rental contracts expire. Claudia Reinery, a 42-year-old manager who is now in charge of sales at Karstadt, has agreed to join the Metro subsidiary by April 2010 at the latest. She will take care of Kaufhof’s sales, marketing and real estate management, replacing Peter Rentsch, who left the group last year. Lovro Mandacs, who has been chief executive of Kaufhof since 1994, has seen his mandate extended once again until 2012, when he will reach the age of 62. Kaufhof’s sales declined by 1.1 percent to €3,516 million in 2008, generating an operating profit of €113 million. Its parent company, Metro, raised its sales by 6.1 percent in constant currencies, reaching a level of €67.9 billion, with increases of 15.3 percent in Eastern Europe and 18.7 percent in Asia and Africa. Metro reached an operating margin before amortization (Ebitda) of 5.2 percent, less than the results of Carrefour or Tesco. Extraordinary losses led to a 51.2 percent drop in the group’s net profit to €403 million.