Food - Lila Bäcker negotiates with investors - situation "stabilized"
Around six weeks after the insolvency agreement, the Lila Bäcker bakery chain is negotiating with several potential buyers or cooperation partners. "Several different interested parties would like to take over the chain bakery, including financial investors," the company announced on Tuesday at its headquarters in Neubrandenburg. The bakery chain had filed for insolvency proceedings under self-administration on October 23. Various ideas and scenarios for the continuation of the company are currently being examined.
"We are talking to serious interested parties and are confident that we can restructure and continue Lila Bäcker in the long term," said Viola Kaluza, CEO of Unser Heimatbäcker Holding GmbH, according to the press release. "Investors are particularly interested in the 232 branches from Berlin to the Baltic Sea and in the supply relationships with major customers," added Andreas Ziegenhagen, the company's authorized representative.
"The next steps can only be planned once these talks and the investor process have been concluded," he said. "The insolvency proceedings can probably be opened at the turn of the year and an insolvency plan presented at the end of the first quarter of 2024." In the meantime, business operations have been "stabilized", it said. Business is continuing unabated with all 1,600 employees. "Our bakery is booming and demand from business customers is high," said Kaluza.
Self-administration is a variant of insolvency proceedings in which the company's management continues to run the business. Unser Heimatbäcker Holding, which trades as Lila Bäcker, has branches in Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Production takes place in Pasewalk and Neubrandenburg, and there are also logistics centers in Gägelow near Wismar and Großbeeren near Berlin. Lila Bäcker had already filed for insolvency at the beginning of 2019 with around 2,500 employees and 400 stores and was relaunched in September 2019 with 270 stores and 2,100 employees thanks to a state guarantee from Schwerin.
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Source: www.stern.de
