DThe company Schlapp-Möbel in Neu-Anspach is threatened with the end of operations. The medium-sized manufacturer of wooden furniture is in preliminary insolvency proceedings. This was confirmed on Friday by the company and a spokesman for the provisional insolvency administrator, Frankfurt lawyer Frank Schmitt. An investor is still being sought for the company, which produces furniture for youth hostels and libraries, among other things. If no new financier is found in the next two weeks, the company will be closed at the end of the month, as the company and the provisional insolvency administrator said unanimously.
With a video on Schlapp-Möbel’s Facebook page, the employees present their company and advertise for an investor. The spokesman for the insolvency administrator spoke of 23 employees affected. According to him, the company is making losses. Without a new investor, who should bring in orders as well as money, continued economic operation would be impossible because from August onwards no more insolvency money would be paid.
Corona and closed hostels
According to the spokesman for the insolvency administrator, the reasons for the bankruptcy application have not yet been fully determined. A drop in sales triggered by the Corona crisis and the closure of youth hostels played an important role. Tobias Wunsch, the manager of the IG Metall trade union, reacted with surprise to the development at Schlapp-Möbel. A few months ago everything was still fine, at that time the managing director even promised a wage increase.
The bankruptcy filing apparently came at a time when the company was seeing more sales again. “The first half of the year was okay,” said a person familiar with the medium-sized company. According to information from the FAZ, Schlapp-Möbel generated sales of around one million euros from the beginning of January to the end of June. This sum compares with a turnover of 1.2 million euros for the whole of 2021. Based on the order backlog, 1.3 million euros in revenue are already certain. The first half of the year is usually weaker than the second. From July to the end of December, the company usually achieves 60 percent of its sales.
As was further learned, one of the two managing directors mentioned in the imprint of Schlapp-Möbel, Lothar Schäfer, has meanwhile taken on another task. He is a member of the management of Maximator Hydrogen in Nordhausen, as can be seen on the Thuringian company’s website. His appointment as managing director of Maximator Hydrogen became public in the electronic Federal Gazette on March 2nd.
As he told the FAZ on Friday evening, he has been on board since January and previously worked for the company in an advisory capacity. Irrespective of this, he still has other companies as a shareholder. As shareholders, he and his colleague Florian Englmair tried to “get the turnaround” at Schlapp-Möbel. Unfortunately, this was not successful. There have been no orders from the youth hostels since the start of the Ukraine war. Ultimately, they would have had to file for bankruptcy. Because of impending insolvency and over-indebtedness. According to him, however, he and Englmair tried to find investors.
