The encyclopedia · People & Management · People decision · 2023–2025
Gabor's family CEO stepped down in 2023 — two years later the house was sold
Founded 1919, Gabor slid from 2nd to 4th in Germany's supplier ranking after its family CEO left. October 2025: 100% sold to Swiss investor Arklyz.
Gabor · 2025-10-16
What happened
Gabor had been making women's shoes in Rosenheim since 1919, and it had been run by the family through all of it. The break came in May 2023, when chief executive Achim Gabor announced his withdrawal for health reasons, effective mid-July. The family house suddenly had no family chief executive and no announced successor.
The two years that followed were a churn of leadership and strategy. Stefan Blöchinger took over as chief executive, boards were reshuffled, a growth strategy of international expansion and direct-to-consumer was announced in November 2023, and restructured again in March 2024. In April 2024 the family announced it was seeking a strategic investor, insisting it acted 'from a position of strength'. The market spent the next eighteen months speculating about what was actually for sale.
The numbers moved the other way. In the ANWR supplier ranking Gabor slipped from second to fourth place, and trade sources reported pre-orders for spring-summer 2026 falling significantly more than the industry average. In May 2025 the group cut 222 jobs at its Silveiros factory in Portugal — 10 to 15% of the workforce. In September the company quietly changed its legal form from AG to GmbH, a month before the answer arrived.
On 16 October 2025, Arklyz AG, the Swiss investment group led by Param Singh — which had already bought the shoemaker Lloyd in 2024 — signed a binding agreement to take 100% of Gabor's shares. Retailers expressed relief that the uncertainty was over, and worry about losing a family identity to a consolidator's D2C plans. A 106-year-old house left its family in the middle of its slide.
Why it happened
- A family business with no succession plan: when CEO Achim Gabor left for health reasons in 2023, two years of rotating leadership followed
- The 'investor search from a position of strength' in April 2024 coincided with a fall from 2nd to 4th in the supplier ranking and pre-order declines above the industry average
- The 222 cuts at the Portuguese factory — 10–15% of the workforce — showed what the successive restructurings were actually doing
- The AG-to-GmbH conversion one month before the sale agreement quietly prepared the exit
The lesson
In a family business, succession is strategy. Gabor's CEO exit opened a two-year vacuum of rotating leaders and restructurings that ended with the house sold to a Swiss consolidator.
Aftermath
Arklyz promises continuity of brand and management, with expansion of D2C, digital and international sales, and synergies with Lloyd. Retailers ask that wholesale margins and the brand's established DNA survive the premium push, and Rosenheim waits to learn what role its headquarters keeps. The antitrust approval and closing conditions still run; the speculation, at least, is over.
Sources
- Schuhkurier — Gabor: die Chronologie
- Schuhkurier — Gabor: Ein Ende — und ein Anfang?
- Rosenheim24 — Arklyz AG kauft Gabor: Schweizer Unternehmensgruppe übernimmt Rosenheimer Schuhmarke (17 Oct 2025)
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