2024-09-28 08:03:39
This is the traditional brand’s fifth insolvency procedure. Now the insolvency administrator is forced to take a drastic step.
BBS once manufactured the rims for Michael Schumacher’s Formula 1 car, but today the auto supplier from the Black Forest is on the verge of extinction. As the insolvency administrator of BBS, Dr. Dirk Pehl confirmed in an interview with the “Neue Rottweiler Zeitung” that further insolvency proceedings will be opened on October 1st and almost all 240 employees will be terminated.
This step has to be taken because the insolvency benefit expires on September 30th and BBS is not in a position to pay the wages and salaries itself. The reason for this is that actual business operations had come to a standstill months before business operations began. “When we filed for bankruptcy, we had no business operations, no orders and no money in the account,” says Pehl.
This is due, among other things, to a trademark dispute. After the last bankruptcy, the new owner, the Turkish investor group İş Global Teknik İnşaat AS, acquired the production facilities, but not the trademark rights. This prevented BBS from producing new rims and selling the remaining stocks for months. The rights were only transferred to the new owner in August.
Although the employees who have now been laid off are entitled to wages against BBS’s remaining financial assets until the end of their notice period, according to the insolvency administrator this is not enough to pay all employees. Therefore, the employees initially receive unemployment benefits for three months. For the difference between unemployment benefit and salary, employees are entitled to the insolvency estate, which will be settled at the end of the insolvency proceedings – provided there is sufficient capital.
Between 2017 and 2024, BBS had a total of five insolvency proceedings, including the last one. The company was founded in 1970. The company primarily produces aluminum rims for high-end vehicles. The name stands for the surnames of the two founders and the company headquarters: Heinrich Baumgartner and Klaus Brand in Schiltach.