2024-04-23 23:03:55
Consumers are currently much more cautious when purchasing furniture. Now a German manufacturer is threatened with extinction.
The ailing furniture manufacturer Hülsta is on the verge of collapse. The employees were informed at a meeting “that with the opening of insolvency proceedings on June 1st there is a risk of operations being suspended,” the provisional insolvency administrator, Christoph Morgen, told the German Press Agency on Tuesday. Until then, all existing customer orders should be fulfilled as much as possible.
MWS Westfalen Works NDS GmbH & Co. KG and MWS Works Westfalen GmbH, known under the name Hülsta, recently filed for insolvency with the Münster district court. The employment agency pays insolvency money for the 280 employees from March to May.
The furniture industry is going through difficult times
According to the company’s own statements, the reason for the financial difficulties of the company from Stadtlohn is a considerable decline in sales as well as external factors such as the difficult market situation, which meant that sales could not be expected to cover costs.
The furniture industry is going through difficult times. As a result of consumers’ reluctance to buy, sales fell by 4.3 percent last year. In the area of living, dining and bedroom furniture, sales even fell by more than 12 percent.
Hülsta-Werke Hüls GmbH & Co. KG had already filed for bankruptcy in October 2022. The process was completed at the end of last year, after which a new investor took over. Now the successor companies are also insolvent. The company has been around since 1940, when Alois Hüls opened a furniture carpentry shop in Stadtlohn. The name Hülsta is made up of the founder’s family name and the place name.