The stores' facades, completely decorated with the so called 'horten tiles',[3] designed by famous architect Egon Eiermann were typical landmarks within the post-war german pedestrian zones ("Fußgängerzonen").

In the 1990s Horten also began introducing the Galeria-concept for its restaurants and gave them a new food distribution sector and a lighter outfit.

Horten's dark brown interiors morphed into a more modern and fresh look with the introduction of the new Galeria stores in the 1980s, with an emphasis on lighter colors such as blue, light gray and white.

Helmut Horten died in 1987, at this time his former company had been acquired by British American Tobacco plc.

Horten AG decided to refresh the 39 biggest stores with the GALERIA design, though this goal was never fully implemented.

That year, Horten founded Horten-Extra GmbH to hold its thirteen smallest locations not branded with the new GALERIA design.

The location in Dortmund was closed directly after the ten Horten-Extra stores were sold; it was renovated as a mall (Westfalen Forum).

Today only one store - the Carsch-Haus in Düssldorf - still has the Horten logo on its facade, struck in stone over the main doors.

After rebuilding, the Carsch-Haus became Horten AG's most modern department store and a model of development for the Galeria concept.