2023-12-20 09:53:33
Habitat was unable to save the furniture. The administrators of the legendary furniture brand will request its placement in compulsory liquidation on Wednesday, December 20, before the Bobigny court. A decision taken during an exceptional meeting of the social and economic committee (CSE).
“Profound financial difficulties”
At the beginning of December, Habitat France was placed in receivership. In a press release, the brand – which achieved a turnover of 64 million in 2021 – explained that it had “faced deep financial difficulties”.
The chain of 25 stores and 450 employees, specializing in the sale of designer furniture and decorative accessories, explained that it had been affected by “a significant drop in store traffic, an inflationary shock and the surge in the prices of energy, raw materials and transport. »
Popularize design
Habitat made a sensational entrance in the 1960s into a designer furniture sector now largely dominated by the Swedish giant Ikea. Pioneer Sir Terence Conran – knighted by the Queen of England for popularizing design – opened the first furniture store in 1964 in London.
“From the 1960s, specialized distribution chains were created which popularized the work previously done by designers like Joseph-André Motte or Pierre Paulin during the post-war furniture boom,” explains Yannick Del Papa, specialist in furniture from the years 1945-1980.
In an eponymous book, Terence Conran summarizes his mantra: « Plain, Simple, Useful » (“Sober, simple, useful”). Because Habitat has established itself with a range of furniture “of honorable quality”, believes Yannick Del Papa. The group expanded in France in 1973, then in Spain and Germany and had up to 500 points of sale around the world.
Unpaid salaries
“Sir Terence Conran would come to see us in the shops and sweep the floor with us,” remembers Ratiba Hamache, employee for 38 years and CGT union delegate. Since then, the company became part of the French distribution group Cafom in 2011 before Thierry Le Guénic, former general manager of the fashion designer Smalto, took the helm in 2020.
“I’ve never seen that, ever, Ratiba Hamache, CGT union representative, is in despair today. The situation is catastrophic. » Unheated stores, harassed employees, undelivered customers – debts estimated at more than “nine million euros”… In an investigation, Mediapart reveals that Thierry Le Guénic only paid 60% of November’s salaries, and was counting on the AGS, a legal salary guarantee scheme, to complete and pay for the month of December.
“I am ashamed of what Habitat has become, highlights the Hamache schedule. In May, the auditor filed a six-month warning on the company. ” But nothing was done “, she laments. Following employees’ right of withdrawal, all 25 stores were closed on Monday December 11.
The CGT union representative compares the situation of the brand to that of Thierry Le Guénic’s other companies. The ready-to-wear brand Burton of London was placed in receivership in June, while Orcanta, a lingerie brand, was liquidated at the beginning of September.
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