German kitchen manufacturer Nieburg Küchen has filed for insolvency.
This comes just days after the news that La Cour Group owned Zeyko, Allmilmö and Nolff have also filed for insolvency.
On Thursday, February 23, Nieburg managing director Andreas Assner filed an application to start provisional insolvency proceedings at the District Court of Bielefeld.
Hanspeter Burghardt, of the Burghardt Ernst Bagh firm, was appointed as insolvency administrator on Monday, February 27. He stated that business operations would continue unrestricted.
Despite a 55% increase in orders since November, which represents around 500 kitchens and an income of €2 million (£1.7m), the company said it was lacking the liquidity to maintain normal production.
In addition, the estate and production facilities are rented by the Fortmeier family, which it said was a “burden”.
The possibility of factoring, which had been suggested by Assner as a way out, had not been able to help in time.
Despite making €10m in 2015/16, in order to stay profitable Assner claimed it needed to make €20m.
Commenting on the insolvency, Assner said: “I knew what I was going to do. I would have liked more time.”
The company previously filed for insolvency in December 2007, and was taken over by the Fortmeier family.
On April 1, 2016, Assner took over as managing director of Nieburg with a 25% share in the company, with the remaining 75% share owned by the Fortmeier family.
Since joining the company, Assner has restructured and opened up new export markets.
“By April 1, we only exported to the Netherlands and Great Britain. Switzerland, Austria, Turkey and Spain have joined. With this expansion of the foreign markets, the export share had risen from 20% to 50%.”
Assner is hopeful that the company could prove attractive to investors and save the jobs of its 113 employees.
“I will continue to fight,” he said. “I am optimistic that it will be possible to find an investor. Intensive talks are being held with an investor. The company is very interested and has the necessary background and good relations with attractive sales channels.”