Galeria Kaufhof, the big German department store chain and a...

Galeria Kaufhof, the big German department store chain and a subsidiary of the Metro Group operating in Germany and Belgium, has created a specialty banner for outdoor retailing. Under the roof of Sportarena, Kaufhof’s chain of specialty sports stores, the group launched two pilot stores called Wanderzeit (“hiking time”) in Neuss near Cologne and in Hamburg. The concept is to attract outdoor enthusiasts with leisure wear, footwear and accessories such as hiking poles, backpacks and GPS devices. Some major brands are already participating in the new project, including The North Face, Jack Wolfskin, Schöffel, Lowa, Meindl, Falke, Deuter, Garmin and Leki. The idea is to have selling space between 400 and 500 square meters and to open two more doors in the southern part of Germany during this year. At the end of the year, Kaufhof is set to check whether the format works and to what extent it should be expanded.