2023-12-20 19:09:21
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 41 minutes ago, Updated now
Habitat France currently employs 315 employees and generated a turnover of 65 million euros in 2022. KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
Liquidation was requested by the receivers of the brand specializing in furniture, citing deep financial difficulties.
The fate of Habitat will be known on December 28. The Bobigny commercial court will issue its decision on this date concerning the liquidation of the brand specializing in furniture, requested by the judicial administrators due to excessive financial difficulties, AFP learned on Wednesday from the lawyer of the employees. “All parties were heard today, including myself on behalf of the community of employees», indicated Maître Arthur-Léo Gandolfo before the Bobigny court, at the end of the hearing on Wednesday, just two weeks after Habitat was placed in receivership.
The brand, founded in 1964, has 25 stores. Habitat France currently employs 315 employees and generated a turnover of 65 million euros in 2022. The parent company, Habitat Design International, employs 68 people and had a turnover of 51.8 million in 2022. But the current financial situation of the company leaves no hope for one of its employees, employed for 20 years at Habitat, who preferred to remain anonymous: “Everything is closed, which supplier could trust us today given the company’s situation? The Habitat name is no longer worth anything“, he laments.
On November 30, Habitat announced that it was seeking recovery, citing “deep financial difficulties, largely attributable“, according to her, “to previous failing management and exacerbated by more recent factors» like inflation but also “a significant drop in store traffic» et «internal social movements having disrupted activity». «We requested an audit of the accounts in October 2022“, sensing “big problems» in the company, Ratiba Hamache, representative of the CGT within the brand, told AFP.
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The 25 Habitat stores closed for a week
The stated objective of the group’s management via this procedure was to “stabilize the financial situation of the brand, which has never been profitable in France, and ensure the long-term viability of Habitat“. But only ten days after it was placed in receivership by the Bobigny court, the judicial administrators announced last Friday in the CSE (social and economic committee) that they were going to request liquidation. “The conditions are not met for a continuation of the activity, there are more obstacles than opportunities. Potentially, there was an initial problem with diagnosis, perhaps a liquidation should have been requested straight away», Estimates a source close to the matter to AFP.
If the court pronounces liquidation on December 28, “it’s the end, everything will be over, employees are laid off, leases are sold, stocks are liquidated», adds this source. For a week, the 25 Habitat stores have been closed, i.e. “following a right of withdrawal exercised by employees, or because the directors decided to close due to attacks from dissatisfied customers» not to receive their orders, sometimes waiting for months, “and who sometimes helped themselves directly in the store», Tells AFP an employee.
He recalls that “only 60% of November salaries have been paid“, what “many employees, including single mothers, are in serious financial difficulty» and said in «really want Thierry Le Guénic», the owner, for his management of the business. According to a source close to the matter, “almost 9 million euros in advance payments, according to initial estimates”, were paid by customers for the purchase of furniture and other products, their chances being slim of recovering their orders or their money in the event of liquidation.
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