Next German shoe retailer insolvent - "state aid" kept companies alive during Corona

Created: 01/06/2023 10:44 am

By: Marc Dimitriu

Symbolic picture: The shoe oasis had to file for bankruptcy.

© IMAGO/Luca Lorenzelli

Corona pandemic, Ukraine war and high inflation: the past few years have not been easy for many companies.

Now the shoe oasis had to file for bankruptcy.

Nassenfels – More and more companies are suffering from the difficult economic situation that has prevailed since the beginning of the corona pandemic.

The fashion industry in particular seems to have been hit hard.

After the Hamburg shoe retailer Görtz became a restructuring case in autumn 2022, the trading company Schuh-Oase GmbH & Co. KG, from Nassenfels in Upper Bavaria, is now also insolvent.

Schuh-Oase insolvent: "No longer able to pay the costs incurred"

The shoe retailer had to file for bankruptcy on December 19, 2022, as preliminary insolvency administrator Matthias Hofmann

confirmed to

Hofmann, a lawyer specializing in restructuring cases, explained to Mode-Magazin that this step had become necessary "after it became foreseeable that the company would no longer be able to cover the costs incurred from future income in the medium and long term and to be paid from the existing financing".

For the time being, the operation of the ten branches can be “continued without restrictions”.

According to Hofmann, the approximately 50 employees can be sure of receiving their salaries until the end of February, as these are secured by the insolvency money.

In addition, there is already "agreement regarding the continuation in the coming weeks and months" with "key business partners".

Insolvency of the shoe oasis: the shoe retailer was only able to survive thanks to state aid and landlord concessions

The company was able to compensate for the “considerable decline in sales since the onset of the corona pandemic” in recent years with “government aid on the one hand and concessions from the landlords of the ten branches”, Hofmann told

.

"With the expiry of the agreements with the landlords at the turn of the year, however, the company will no longer be able to secure its financial requirements in the medium term."

The insolvency administrator went on to explain: "In my opinion, there is a long-term perspective for the company above all if it succeeds in agreeing new conditions for the future with the landlords of the 10 branches, which also apply to a compared to the time before the Corona Pandemic lower sales level still enable cost-covering continuation. " According to Hofmann, these negotiations with the landlords "represented the core of the renovation efforts".