Karstadt's new CEO eager to start

Eva-Lotta Sjostedt, the new Chief Executive Officer of the loss-making German department store chain Karstadt,

has promised to bring around big changes to the company.

In an interview with Reuters, the Swedish CEO, who first started her career as a fashion designer, stated that the company needs to work harder to successfully integrate its online store image with its existing brick-and-mortar stores to boost sales.

Although Sjostedt does not officially start her new role until February 24, she has already been hard at work visiting a number of Karstadt stores throughout the country to see where improvement is needed. “We have no time to lose. We have to act," Sjostedt said to Reuters. "Karstadt is not profitable at the moment and that must change quickly."

In 2010 Karstadt was saved bankruptcy by businessman Nicolas Berggruen, who has been recently accused by German unions and media of not investing sufficient funds into the department store chain. Karstadt is thought to be making losses for a number of years now, although the privately owned company has not published any financial reports recently.

Last September, Berggruen sold 75.1 percent of the company shares to Sigma Holding owner, investor Rene Benko. Berggruen continues to own the remaining 24.9 percent of company shares.The two decided to jointly invest 300 million euros into Karstadt.

It will be a challenge for Sjostedt, who previously worked at Ikea as deputy global retail manager in Japan, to successfully turn business around for Karstadt. She argues that the physical store offering needs to match the retailer's online assortment, and that customer service should be a top priority. In the UK, the successful merger of online and offline stores have helped department stores like John Lewis excel in sales. She is already hard at work learning German in order to gain further insight and understanding in German's competitive retail market.