Since two weeks are closed most doors at retail. Commercial landlords are now feeling this. The sporting goods manufacturers Adidas and Puma, the fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and the shoe retail chain Deichmann have announced that they will stop the transfer payments.
As a precaution, Adidas will temporarily suspend payments where its own stores are closed, said a company spokeswoman. That are many. Adidas and its sister brand Reebok operate 2,500 of their own stores worldwide. Due to regulatory requirements, these are closed in Europe, North, and Latin America, in many emerging markets, in Australia and New Zealand.
One is in talks with the landlords. There are different procedures, from freezing payments to deferrals and partial payments. It is not ironic that these practices do not apply to China, where the Corona pandemic started. The 12,000 stores of the Adidas partners and the 500 own stores are reopened there.
The three-stripe brand is reacting to the consequences of the crisis with cuts in costs, the duration of which is not yet foreseeable. Adidas is also currently negotiating short-time work with the works councils. The board announced on Friday that it would temporarily defer half of its monthly remuneration.
onwards we will suspend rental payments for the time being; in discussion with our landlords in Germany, we will try to find a viable solution as we can master this difficult situation for all of us, ”it says on request. As a result of the closures ordered by the authorities since mid-March, the stationary trade came to a complete standstill. It is still not foreseeable for Puma when the operation can be restarted at all.
The largest European shoe retailer, Deichmann, has informed the lessors of its approximately 1,200 stores that it will also temporarily suspend rental and ancillary payments as a preventive measure from April. In this way, the economic ability to act should be ensured even though the company is healthy. There is currently a company vacation, and then short-time working from April. Hennes & Mauritz, as a powerful textile retail chain, also announced the freeze on rent for its 460 closed shops in Germany and is acting similarly in other countries.
In a joint appeal at the end of last week, umbrella organizations from the retail, craft and real estate sectors had asked politicians that crisis funds should also focus on the “problems of commercial real estate”. “Overnight sales drop to zero, but monthly expenses for personnel, rents, and entertainment in four, five or even six-figure amounts continue to run barely,” wrote the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Association of Cities, the HDE trade association, the owners’ association Haus und Grund, the Association of Municipal Enterprises, the Central Association of Crafts and the Real Estate Association ZIA. Insolvent companies would suddenly turn out to be tenants. Individual solutions were needed “to maintain the tenancy agreement”.
However, some landlords naturally come to meet troubled companies: “Ingka Centers” has announced that it will waive all rental payments. Ingka Centers is the real estate company of the Swedish furniture group Ikea and is one of the largest operators of shopping centers in the world. It owns 45 properties in 15 countries. In Germany, for example, “Luv Shopping” in Lubeck is one of them. Suspending rental costs is intended to mitigate the effects of the crisis.
“We are of the opinion that we are jointly responsible here,” said the major landlord. In addition to the rent, the deferral also applies to the flat-rate incidental costs and continues until the officially ordered closure is canceled.
