End clap for Habitat, the furniture brand placed in liquidation this Thursday

The Bobigny court declared the liquidation of Habitat this Thursday due to its serious financial difficulties, sealing the fate of a brand that democratized design for decades. Everything happened very quickly: less than ten days after the placement in receivership of this company specializing in home furnishings and equipment, the receivers announced on December 15 in the CSE (social and economic committee) that they were going to request its liquidation, given the particularly deteriorated situation of the accounts.

The Bobigny court therefore chose to put an end to the story of Habitat in France, eight days after a hearing during which it heard all the stakeholders. “They will give us an answer, but we know that it will be a liquidation», Estimates Youcef Toumert, executive-employee for 21 years and CGT member of the CSE of Habitat. “It will be a termination of each contract of each employee and then goodbye, that’s all (…) I started, in my head, to prepare“, he confides. For Youcef Toumert, the only hope to avoid this scenario was that a buyer “come and stick your nose” in this file. The miracle will not have happened.

In a letter addressed to AFP on Wednesday evening, Thierry Le Guénic, the buyer of Habitat in 2020, admits not having “succeeded in meeting this challenge, just like the previous shareholders“. While maintaining that he was able to avoid “any social plan» and invested more than 12 million euros in digital technology and the opening of points of sale, Thierry Le Guénic concedes that his projects and ambitions “could not be achieved in a very unfavorable economic context (…) and in the face of obvious internal resistance“. Today, “another phase is opening, and we are now committed to helping find any reclassification solution for our employees», adds the businessman.

Read also“We were never informed of Habitat’s difficulties”: the anger of these thousands of customers who will never receive their furniture

“Ensure payment of all suppliers and delivery of orders to customers”

The brand, which has 25 stores in France, was founded in 1964 by the British designer Terence Conran (died in 2020), with the aim of offering furniture and decorative objects that are both sober, at an affordable price. clean and modern. Habitat France currently employs 315 employees and generated a turnover of 65 million euros in 2022. The parent company, Habitat Design International, employs 68 people and had a turnover of 51.8 million euros in 2022. On November 30, the group’s management explained that its request for placement in recovery had “with the aim of stabilizing the financial situation» of the sign, which “has never been profitable in France“, And “to ensure its long-term viability“.

She then assured “prepare a continuation recovery plan» and asserted that his “main objective was to ensure payment of all suppliers and delivery of orders to customers“. But once the court administrators delved into the accounts, they quickly found that “the conditions were not met for a continuation of the activity» and that there was “more obstacles than opportunities“, a source close to the matter explained to AFP. This source notably indicated that “almost 9 million euros in advance payments, according to initial estimates”, had been paid by customers for the purchase of furniture and other products.

In our article dedicated to the subject on December 20, Le Figaro collected testimonials from three customers, all of whom paid more than 1,000 euros for the purchase of an item and who today have little chance of recovering their orders or obtaining a refund. Although Habitat’s difficulties are not recent, these clients assure “having never been informed of the difficulties of the brand» when purchasing them. The fact remains that Habitat was already in a net loss when it was put up for sale in 2019 by its owner at the time, the distributor Cafom. Habitat had previously belonged to the American investment fund Hilco and the Swedish Kamprad family (also owners of Ikea).

In 2020, the brand was bought by entrepreneur-investor Thierry Le Guénic. The same year, this businessman bought the clothing brand Burton of London, which was placed in receivership last summer and which did not find a buyer. Thierry Le Guénic also took over the ready-to-wear brand Paule Ka and the Maison Lejaby lingerie brand. He was also part of a trio of investors, including Stéphane Collaert, who bought Chevignon from Vivarte in 2019.