After successfully purchasing the luxury store Selfridges Group from the Weston Family, Central Group of Thailand and Signa Holding, located in Austria, have integrated it into their larger operations.
The 22 luxury department stores that Central and Signa currently own together with the two new stores that will open in Dusseldorf and Vienna soon will be integrated with the Selfridges portfolio, which consists of Selfridges in the United Kingdom, Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland, and De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands. This means that the group is now a part of a conglomerate that also includes Globus in Switzerland, KaDeWe, Oberpollinger, and Alsterhaus in Germany that are jointly controlled by Central and Signa, and Rinascente in Italy and Illum in Denmark.
In addition to leading Selfridges Group, Stefano Della Valle, the CEO of Central and Signa’s luxury department store group in Europe, will take on a more prominent role. As a result, current MD of Selfridges Anne Pitcher will continue to serve on the leadership team “as already planned” through the end of the year in order to facilitate a seamless transition into the newly established group. Dieter Berninghaus, chairman of Signa, and Tos Chirathivat, CEO and executive chairman of Central, will serve as co-chairs of the group.
In a joint statement they said that they’re “long-term investors with a well-established partnership and shared vision to reshape and reinvent the luxury retail industry. We are committed to create the world’s leading luxury omnichannel platform for all our customers through both online and offline channels. We are excited to meet and work with our new colleagues, as well as brand partners to achieve this vision.”
