Shoe brand Gabor is now owned by a Swiss investor

The Swiss investor Arklyz has acquired the German shoe brand Gabor. The company, based in Stans on Lake Lucerne, did not disclose the purchase price. All regulatory approvals have been obtained, according to the press release.

Previously owned by the eponymous founding family and headquartered in Rosenheim, the shoemaker is best known for its women’s footwear. The company is now wholly owned by Arklyz. The Gabor brand will be retained, and the current management team will remain in place.

Arklyz is an investment holding company founded in 2018 that is primarily active in the sports, clothing, and footwear sectors. Arklyz also acquired a German shoe brand last year: Lloyd, based in Sulingen, Lower Saxony.

Headquarters in Bavaria, production abroad

The precursor to today’s Gabor Shoes was a shoe workshop founded in 1919 in what is now Polish Upper Silesia; the company has been based in Rosenheim since 1966. According to the company’s website, Gabor is one of Europe’s largest shoe manufacturers.

In 2023, the company employed just under 2,630 people. Of these, only 366 were based in Germany; the majority worked in two shoe factories in Slovakia and Portugal. According to the German company register, Gabor posted a net profit of 13.4 million euros in 2023, with revenue totalling 282 million euros.