2023-12-28 13:57:00
She had democratized design for decades. The Habitat furniture brand, in great financial difficulty, was placed in compulsory liquidation, without maintaining its activity, on Thursday by the Bobigny commercial court, according to the decision consulted by AFP. Everything will have happened very quickly: less than ten days after the placement in receivership of this company specializing in furnishing and home equipment which employs 383 people, the receivers announced on December 15 in the social and economic committee ( CSE) that they were going to request its liquidation, given the particularly deteriorated situation of the accounts.
Thursday, in its decision which AFP consulted, the court “pronounced the conversion of the judicial recovery procedure into judicial liquidation without maintaining the company’s activity”. 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 euros in 2022.
“Another phase begins”
The court recalls that it “appeared from the report of the judicial administrator that there is no possibility of developing a recovery plan” and that the situation was “irremediably compromised” for Habitat, in particular “due to the absence of cash and the impossibility of using the brand”. “The company no longer has any turnover, the stores are closed” and “the outstanding balance of undelivered customers who have paid a deposit is 9 million euros”, it is specified in the judgment.
In a letter addressed to AFP on Wednesday evening, Thierry Le Guénic, the buyer of Habitat in 2020, admits to having “failed to meet this challenge, just like the previous shareholders”. While believing that he was able to avoid “any social plan” and claiming to have invested more than 12 million euros in digital technology and the opening of points of sale, Thierry Le Guénic concedes that his projects and ambitions “could not be carried out in a very unfavorable economic context […] and in the face of obvious internal resistance.” Today, “another phase is opening, and we are now committed to helping find any reclassification solution for our employees,” adds the businessman.
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