The Bobigny court placed Habitat in liquidation this Thursday due to its serious financial difficulties, thus sealing the fate of a brand that has democratized design for decades. Everything will have happened very quickly: less than ten days after the placement in receivership of this company specializing in furnishing and home equipment which employs 383 people, the receivers announced on December 15 in the social and economic committee ( CSE) that they were going to request its liquidation, given the particularly deteriorated situation of the accounts.
This Thursday, in its decision, the court “pronounced the conversion of the receivership procedure into judicial liquidation without maintaining the company’s activity”. 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.
“No possibility of developing a recovery plan”
The court recalls that it “appeared from the report of the judicial administrator that there is no possibility of developing a recovery plan” and that the situation was “irremediably compromised” for Habitat in particular “because of the ‘lack of cash and the impossibility of using the brand’. “The company no longer has any turnover, the stores are closed” and “the outstanding balance of undelivered customers who have paid a deposit is 9 million euros”, it is specified in the judgment.
Thierry Le Guénic, the buyer of Habitat in 2020, admits not having “succeeded in meeting this challenge, just like the previous shareholders”. While believing that he was able to avoid “any social plan” and claiming to have 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 carried out in a very unfavorable economic context (…) and in the face of obvious internal resistance”.
Founded in 1964
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’s difficulties are not recent. The brand 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.