Apparatus for grouping piece goods and method for format change

The invention relates to a handling apparatus (1) for piece goods (2) that comprises at least one divider finger (14, 46, 51), which is introducible to a transport plane (5), largely perpendicular, from below, with the at least one divider finger being connected to a divider bar element (13, 13*, 43, 50). The divider bar element is movably arranged below the transport plane (5) and is guided in a specified movement path. The divider bar element is detachably connected to a profile element (11, 41). During a format change, the divider bar element is toolessly detached and interchanged for another divider bar element, which has divider fingers that are positioned differently and/or spaced apart differently from the divider fingers of the removed divider bar element.