category Management

Basing purchasing processes and thereby our product ranges and presentation of goods on the needs of our target customers.

Contractual Trust Agreement (CTA)

Contractually regulated, company trust fund for the transfer of assets to be used to finance pension payments.

corporate governance

Comprises the entire management and control of a company, including its organizational structure, business policy principles, guidelines, and internal and external regulation and monitoring mechanisms. The Corporate Governance Code represents significant legal requirements, recommendations and suggestions for the management and monitoring of German stock-exchange-listed companies, contains standards for good, responsible corporate management and is aimed at making the German corporate governance system transparent and comprehensible.

E-Commerce

Electronic trading between companies and consumers.
 

EBITDA

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization. Earnings before financial results, income taxes and depreciation and amortization.

Fashion

Fashion consumer segment comprises ladies’, men’s and children’s clothing.

Free cash flow

Specific indicator in the cash flow statement. Free cash flow is calculated from the cash low from current business activity and the cash flow from investing activity. Calculation of net free cash flow takes into account interest received and paid and changes in pension provisions and plan assets

KonTraG

German Law on Corporate Control and Transparency.

M&A (Mergers & Acquisition)

Short for English “mergers & acquisitions”, that is, corporate transactions through which companies merge or change owner.

Market capitalization

The valuation of a company on the stock exchange, obtained by multiplying the stock exchange price by the number of shares of a company.

Modular Tourism

The combining of individual holiday modules, such as hotel and air flight, to suit individual requirements.

Multi-channel

Strategy where a number of sales and communication channels complement one another. Important sales channels in the Arcandor Group are department stores, catalogs, e-commerce and TV-commerce.

Own brands

Own brands, or retail brands, are brands which are marketed by retailers themselves. Examples of Karstadt’s own brands include Yorn, YornCasa, Inscene. Well-known Quelle brands are, for example, electrical household appliances of the Privileg brand and consumer electronics of the Universum brand.

Premium Group

Karstadt top locations offering an exclusive, international product range. As “Top of Europe” (KaDeWe) and “Top of the Region” (Alsterhaus), these cosmopolitan stores are the first port of call for a particularly high-quality shopping experience.

profiling product lines

Segments in which a product range standard comparable with that of specialists is offered. They are being extended to include compulsory and supplementary ranges.

phantom stock programm

Virtual stock options served in cash.

Risk management

In the Arcandor Group we analyze and the corporate segments autonomously manage their respective business risks on the basis of a Groupwide risk management system.

Shopping portal

Internet site at which customers can shop and inform themselves right round the clock. Arcandor’s Online World offers over 60 portals.

short financial year

A financial year of less than twelve months. Following the resolution by the Annual General Meeting in 2007, the end of the financial year of Arcandor AG was changed from December 31 to September 30. The 2007 financial year is therefore a short, nine-month financial year from January 1 to September 30. In future, the reporting period will run from October 1 to September 30.

Teleshopping

Teleshopping is a form of selling where products are presented to consumers through television and can be ordered by telephone.

Trading-up

Higher-quality alignment of product ranges, advice, services and store fittings.

Working capital

Sum of inventories and customer receivables less supplier liabilities.

wphg

Securities Trading Law.