German Retail Giant Kadewe Appoints New General Manager Amid Legal Turmoil

Kadewe renews its top management with talent from PVH Corporation. Sandra Swiderski will take over as managing director of the Berlin-based company. The appointment comes a year after the group went into court after declaring insolvency.

The German-based Kadewe Group owns the department store of the same name, and its portfolio also includes the Oberpollinger shopping center in Munich and the Alsterhaus complex in Hamburg.

The new CEO, who will report to Norman Plattner, Kadewe’s retail director, joins from U.S. fashion group PVH, owner of brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. For one year, Swideski was retail manager for PVH’s Dach region, which includes Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The bulk of her career path, however, has been marked by her long tenure at Peek & Cloppenburg KG Düsseldorf, a multi-brand fashion group based in Düsseldorf, Vienna and Hamburg that offers luxury and own brands. From 2014 to 2019, she was general sales manager. In 2019, she was appointed country manager international sales, a position she held until 2023.

Oliver Krammy is stepping down from his position, which he had held since last year, due to health reasons

In her new position, Sandra Swideski takes over from Oliver Kramny, who is resigning for health reasons, according to local media reports.

The Kadewe Group went to court in January last year after declaring insolvency. At the time, it was part of the portfolio of the real estate group Signa Holding, which had acquired it more than a decade ago. The Austrian conglomerate, however, declared insolvency last November 2023 with a debt of €13 billion.

A few months after going to court, Thai giant Central Group acquired Kadewe’s Berlin warehouses as a preliminary step to take over the group, in which it held a majority stake. In August, Central Group itself became the sole operator of the three luxury department stores in Germany under the new operating company, Kadewe Gmbh.