Swedish retail group Axcent of Scandinavia and Icelandic investment company Skel are set to acquire Belgian department store chain Inno from Germany’s Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof.
No financial details have been disclosed, but the sale should be finalised this month. It is expected that the transition will not affect current Inno employees and that the name will be maintained.
The 16 Inno stores in Belgium will be placed under Innovative Retail, a joint venture in which Axcent of Scandinavia and Skel each hold 50%. The current CEO, Armin Devender, will remain in charge.
With new ownership, Inno aims to drive further growth. "We plan to expand Inno to many more Belgian cities, where we will be able to better serve our loyal customers in new department stores," said Ayad Al-Saffar, CEO and majority shareholder of Axcent of Scandinavia.
Devender also mentioned the “opening of new stores in Belgium” and the development of "an additional shop concept". Inno is currently located mainly in larger cities with big department stores and sees potential for growth in smaller cities, where it will also operate smaller department stores, according to a spokesperson.
Several months ago, Al-Saffar also took a majority stake in Casa, a home interior chain from the Kempen region, through his holding company AAS Retail.
Additionally, through Axcent of Scandinavia, the Swedish-Lebanese entrepreneur owns the Dutch jewellery chain Lucardi (which also has six Belgian stores) and the Swedish department store chain Ahlens.
