Karstadt interim CEO steps down

Business has not been going as smoothly as anticipated at loss-making German department store group Karstadt, which was

acquired last week by Signa Holdings. On Tuesday, the department store group announced the departure of its interim chief executive officer, Kai-Uwe Weitz. Miguel Mullenbach, the group's chief financial officer is set to take on the CEO responsibilities temporarily, until a more permanent replacement can be found.

Weitz first took on the role of interim CEO this July, after Eva-Loota Sjostedt left the German department store group only seven months after she took on the role as CEO. At the time of her exit from Karstadt, Sjostedt hinted that she felt that the department store group was not being sufficiently supported financially by its then owner billionaire Nicolas Berggruen and was therefore unable to turnaround the group.

Last week, Signa acquired full ownership of Karstadt, after previously taking a 75.1 percent stake in the group's premium and sport's stores last September for 300 million euros. Now the German department store group aims to introduce a series of strategic changes to help get business back on track as soon as possible. “We will tackle the restructuring of Karstadt as quickly and decisively as possible,” said the group in a statement.