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Zielpunkt supermarket chain files for insolvency

The Austrian supermarket chain Zielpunkt is formally beginning insolvency proceedings with the Vienna court of commerce. Nearly 3,000 employees are expected to lose their jobs before Christmas.

Published: 30 November 2015 13:56 CET
Zielpunkt supermarket chain files for insolvency
File photo: APA

Zielpunkt's owner, Upper Austrian businessman Georg Pfeiffer, has been accused of deliberately letting the business fail after gaining control of dozens of Zielpunkt properties and of timing the insolvency filing for the end of November so that he could avoid paying Christmas bonuses to the chain's employees (saving him around €18 million). 

Zielpunkt has debts of more than €200 million. It has 229 stores throughout Austria, the majority in Vienna and Lower Austria.

Pfeiffer has been defending himself from allegations that he is an asset stripper and stands to profit from letting the chain go bust. In an interview with the Österreich newspaper he said that he would be prepared to use money from private funds to help soften the blow for workers who are left without a job just before Christmas, but that he was prevented from doing that by Austrian law.  

He added that he has been speaking to the head of the Arbeitsmarkt Service Johannes Kopf, and would work closely with him to help employees find another job. 

Unions are holding meetings today to inform employees about the current situation.

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BUSINESS

Where are Austria’s big international companies located?

Austria's most prominent international companies are involved in banking, insurance, and construction projects worldwide, many but are they all found in Vienna?

Published: 1 December 2023 11:33 CET
Where are Austria's big international companies located?

Here’s where each of the ten largest companies in Austria, by revenue generated last year, are located, both within Vienna and outside of the capital.

One of Central and Eastern Europe’s biggest insurance firms, the Vienna Insurance Group is headquartered in the capital. Their main offices are directly north of the Innere Stadt on Schottenring, close to the Rossau district.

A fellow insurance firm, the Uniqa Group, is located close by. Owning over fifteen significant insurance providers across Europe, they are market leaders alongside Vienna Insurance Group. Their headquarters can be found in the eponymous Uniqa Tower, on Ferdinandstraße close to the Karmeliterviertel.

Erste Group, one of the continent’s biggest providers of financial services, was founded just over two hundred years ago in Leopoldstadt, a suburb adjoining Vienna’s centre to the east. Today, the group is headquartered in the Erste Campus, less than a five-minute walk from Vienna’s central train station.

Founded in the fifties, OMV is the country’s largest oil and gas company. The company owns three European refineries, including one at Schwechat in Lower Austria, near the capital. The company is based in the Hoch Zwei building in the Second District, near the banks of the Danube.

Construction company Strabag, responsible for massive infrastructure projects across Europe and South East Asia, is located across the Danube from OMW, near the Austria Centre and the expansive Donaupark.

Banking giant Raiffeisen International is headquartered in the Weissgerberviertel, north of Vienna’s city centre. Other divisions, including their software development teams, are based throughout the city centre.

Construction company Porr Group, which has many subsidiaries in Austria and involvement in significant railway building projects throughout Europe, has headquarters in Vienna’s south, five kilometres away, in the Favoriten district.

Verbund AG, Austria’s largest energy provider, can also be found outside Vienna’s centre. It is based to the south-west, close to the Mariahilf district and the city’s Westbahnhof, or western train station.

Steel and technology group Voestalpine is located away from Vienna in Linz, Upper Austria, roughly equidistant between Salzburg and Vienna. The company’s headquarters can be found between the Spallerhof district and the Industriegebeit, or industrial area.

Finally, international metals and technology firm Andritz AG is also based outside Vienna, in Graz in Styria. Their headquarters is some distance from the city centre, in the district which gave the company its name: Graz-Andritz.

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