The Haba Familygroup filed for bankruptcy in September of this year, and since the beginning of December the company from Bad Rodach has also been able to officially carry out insolvency proceedings under self-administration. Now, almost two weeks later, the company from the Coburg district has announced details of its restructuring concept: In the future, they will concentrate more on the brands “Haba” for children’s toys and “Haba Pro” for furniture and equipment for daycare centers and kindergartens, said Mario Wilhelm, Managing Director of Haba Familygroup.
Transfer company founded after discussions with IG Metall
In the past few weeks and months, every business area has been put to the test in order to enable the company to have an economically sustainable future. Last week, after successful negotiations with the works council and IG Metall, a transfer company was founded in which around 450 former employees of the Haba Familygroup were placed for six months, Wilhelm continued. This transfer company attempts to find new employment relationships for employees. The term of the transfer company should be six months.
In July, the company announced “massive job cuts” for economic reasons and announced at the beginning of October that around 700 jobs would be eliminated. Since the summer, around 200 employees have left the Haba Familygroup through job fairs or on their own initiative.
Haba lawyer speaks of “heap of shards”
The company has learned from mistakes in the past, said Martin Mucha, general representative of the Grub Brugger law firm, to the BR. However, they also found a “heap of broken pieces that had to be organized and sorted”. The introduction of business software in particular has caused major problems internally in the past. The company has done its homework with the new concept. Mucha continued that he believes that the Haba Familygroup, also through streamlining, will be able to be in the black again in the future.
In the future, around 1,000 employees will work at the headquarters in Bad Rodach. In the summer there were 1,700. The insolvency proceedings are expected to be completed at the end of February next year. They want to return to the market as quickly as possible and offer the usual reliability, says managing director Mario Wilhelm. Many customers are unsettled by the situation, but Haba Familygroup says it is able to deliver. In the daycare equipment and furniture segment, the company has many municipalities as customers who are very cautious about new purchases due to the currently unclear budget situation.
“Hard blow” for Bad Rodach’s mayor
The reactions from the region to the company’s realignment are mixed. Bad Rodach’s mayor Tobias Ehrlicher (SPD) told the BR that the situation due to the reduction of around 450 jobs was dramatic for the city and a hard blow. In the past there was no problem between the Haba Familygroup and the city of Bad Rodach, and that will continue to be the case in the future. At the same time, Ehrlicher hopes that the company will regain its strength on the market with regard to the trade tax.
In an interview with BR24, a spokeswoman for IG Metall in Coburg regretted the difficult situation for many employees. Nevertheless, tough negotiations ensured that the company continued to exist.
The announced realignment of the Haba Familygroup also has two sides for the economic development of the Coburg district. On the one hand, he was moved by the fate of the employees so shortly before Christmas, who could no longer stay in the company, said Martin Schmitz, the economic development officer for the Coburg district, to the BR. On the other hand, people are happy that 1,000 jobs will be retained. Schmitz continued that he sees good opportunities for the Bad Rodach-based company to restructure and reposition itself through self-administration insolvency.