The insolvent baking chain Lila Bäcker now has to close its remaining 160 branches in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein. The company announced on Friday in Neubrandenburg that the same applies to the logistics area, administration and production in Pasewalk. “Around 900 employees will therefore have to be laid off on February 1st,” it continued. The employees of Unser Heimatbäcker GmbH were informed about the closures by insolvency administrator Christian Graf Brockdorff at an online conference on Friday morning. The background to the decision is that the last offer from the only remaining interested party this week had to be rejected by the banks for formal reasons. “The financiers are therefore no longer prepared to bear losses from ongoing business operations. However, without such a commitment from the banks, we cannot and must not continue operations,” said the insolvency administrator.
The bakery chain has been struggling with financial difficulties for a long time. Lila Bäcker had already filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of 2019 with around 2,500 employees and 400 stores and, thanks to a state guarantee from Schwerin, restarted in September 2019 with 270 branches and 2,100 employees. In October 2023, the baking chain finally filed for insolvency proceedings under self-administration. In December, the last investor pulled out to take over the entire company. The insolvency proceedings were opened on January 1st. Around a third of the approximately 230 branches should therefore be closed. Only the approximately 160 well-visited branches and cafés in interesting locations should remain. Now it’s over for them too.