Poggenpohl Möbelwerke GmbH, a German manufacturer of premium kitchens, has recorded a considerable decline in orders and sales since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is despite instant measures such as short-time working and adjustments to production capacities. Companies with ongoing restructuring cannot take advantage of the aid programme launched by the German government to protect the economy during the Corona crisis. Therefore, Poggenpohl had to file an application for the opening of insolvency proceedings. These took place with the district court in Bielefeld on 24 April 2020.
The court granted the application and appointed the lawyer Manuel Sack, a partner in the nationwide law firm Brinkmann & Partner, who has experience in restructuring, as the provisional insolvency administrator for Poggenpohl. The other companies of the Poggenpohl Group in Germany or abroad have not filed insolvency applications. The provisional insolvency administrator and his team are on site to stabilize operations and ensure deliveries.
Through insolvency pre-financing, the payment of wages and salaries for 270 Poggenpohl Möbelwerke employees was secured from April through June.
Business had Recently Shown Stable Development.
Following the restructuring of the company over the past two years, the company consistently pursued a multi-channel sales strategy. They especially focused on independent dealers as its most important sales partners. Additional sales channels include the company’s own flagship stores, retail outlets, kitchen studios and project business with larger construction units.
Poggenpohl successfully strengthened its distribution network in Asia by setting up a joint sales venture at the end of 2019. Therefore, the order books for the second half of the year are well filled. The aim of the insolvency proceedings will be to continue the restructuring and preserve the company and the brand.
“The kitchen’s unifying function is something we are all currently experiencing in our own homes. Because we stay in rather than eat with friends or in a restaurant, we experience cooking much more intensively than before. Poggenpohl can benefit from this new feeling, which will certainly last for a longer period of time. That’s why we’ll start looking for investors as early as this week and business operations will continue,” explains provisional insolvency administrator Manuel Sack.