Type GmbH Founded April 1994 Key people Heinz Speet, CEO | Industry Retail Headquarters Bönen, Germany | |
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Founder Stefan Heinig, Tengelmann Group | ||
KiK, legally KiK Textilien und Non-Food GmbH, is a German textile discount store chain headquartered in Bönen.
Contents
Overview
KiK was founded in 1994 by Stefan Heinig and the holding company Tengelmann Group. KiK is an acronym for "Kunde ist König" (English: The customer is king).
KiK is the largest textile discounter chain in Germany and operates about 3,200 stores in Germany, Austria (since 1998), Slovenia and Czech Republic (since 2007), Hungary and Slovakia (since 2008), Croatia (since 2011) and Poland (since March 2012).
Marketing
KiK have, in the past, sponsored a number of football teams, namely Arminia Bielefeld, Werder Bremen, Hansa Rostock and VfL Bochum. They currently sponsor referees of the Austrian Football Bundesliga and in January 2009 also sponsored the German national team at the 2009 World Men's Handball Championship.
Verona Pooth has been the face of KiK's television advertising campaign.
Building collapse at Savar
On 24 April 2013, the eight-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed in Savar, a sub-district near Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. At least 1,127 people died and over 2,438 were injured. The factory housed a number of separate garment factories employing around 5,000 people, and manufactured apparel for brands including the Benetton Group, Joe Fresh, The Children's Place, Primark, Monsoon, and DressBarn. Of the 29 brands identified as having sourced products from the Rana Plaza factories, only 9 attended meetings held in November 2013 to agree a proposal on compensation to the victims. Several companies refused to sign including Walmart, Carrefour, Bonmarché, Mango, Auchan and KiK. The agreement was signed by Primark, Loblaws, Bonmarché and El Corte Inglés.
Swastika-styled clothing racks
In 2009, a man from the German state Schleswig-Holstein pressed charges against KiK under Strafgesetzbuch § 86a, which outlaws the "use of symbols of unconstitutional organisations", for the chain using swastika-styled clothing racks in their shops.
Wages for factory workers
KiK have been criticised by the Clean Clothes Campaign for their bad practises in countries such as Bangladesh, where factory workers, often children, are paid as little as €18–24 per month.
Secret credit ratings of staff
While running almost 50,000 secret credit ratings of staff, overtime is often not paid, despite accusations and lawsuits of KiK paying below minimum wage to their staff in Germany.