The new owner of the Kika/Leiner furniture retail group in Central Europe is to cut around a fifth of its workforce as it looks to restructure the business.

Kika/Leiner was divorced from Steinhoff International Holdings earlier this summer, in a deal that saw SIGNA Holding take ownership.

SIGNA is controlled by a locally-known real estate investor called René Benko. Die Presse, a national daily newspaper in Austria, where Kika/Leiner is based, say it will make 1,100 of its 5,000 staff redundant.

That is part of a plan to cut costs including a reduction in headcount at its St. Pölten HQ and as a result of various store closures. Kika/Leiner has estimated sales of around €1 billion and nearly 50 stores.

Earlier this year Steinhoff said that following the disposal, the group and the Kika/Leiner sale assets shall have no claims, receivables or other liabilities to each other, while any cash demands on the group from the Kika/Leiner sale assets would cease. Steinhoff had acquired Kika/Leiner back in 2013.