Arcandor facts

Arcandor AG's headquarters are in Essen, Germany and the company's profile is based on three core business areas: department stores, mail order services and tourism.

Arcandor is the leading European retail and tourism group. Its core businesses are Karstadt department stores in several German cities, mail order companies at home and abroad and the tour operator Thomas Cook.

Rudolph Karstadt opened his first department store in Wismar in 1881. Today, the Premium Group stores, Karstadt stores, Karstadt sports and the online store karstadt.de are all unified under one roof and operate together for Germany's oldest department store company.

Arcandor AG's mail order business is managed under the roof of Primondo GmbH -- universal mail order company Quelle, as well as other special mail order companies are part of Primondo.

The Thomas Cook Group was formed by Thomas Cook AG in February 2007 after the takeover of Europe's third-largest tour operator, MyTravel. With headquarters in Peterborough, England, the company is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Thomas Cook Group is among the top international tourist companies with outstanding market positions in Europe and North America.

Arcandor pools together its retail-related service activities in the services segment. This comprises both financial and information services and also customer relations management. KarstadtQuelle Finanz Service GmbH, KarstadtQuelle Bank and the "HappyDigits" customer cards launched in cooperation with Deutsche Telekom are all key components of this segment. E-mail to a friend