Furniture trade
Furniture company XXXLutz takes over Porta
An exciting deal is brewing in the furniture industry: The XXXLutz Group wants to buy a major competitor. The Federal Cartel Office still has to agree. The furniture industry fears market power.
The Austrian furniture giant XXXLutz is taking over the Porta Group with its around 140 locations in Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The two companies announced this in a joint statement. The German furniture industry speaks of “dramatic news”.
The employment contracts of the 6,000 Porta employees will continue to exist unchanged, and there are currently no plans for layoffs, said a spokesman for the German Press Agency. No information was provided about the purchase price. The deal will only come about if the Federal Cartel Office approves.
“If this purchase were to take place, the already high concentration in the German furniture trade would further intensify and reach a threatening level,” said a reaction from the German furniture industry associations. “Our medium-sized manufacturers have been facing growing retail market power for years and are being forced to make ever greater concessions.”
Paul de Jong, managing director of Porta-Holding, justified the move, among other things, with the tough competitive environment in the furniture industry. The furniture company from Porta Westfalica includes the discounter SB-Möbel Boss, the Asko Group in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the Saxony-Anhalt furniture retailer Letz. It is still unclear whether the brand names will remain after a successful takeover, it said. The Porta founding families Gärtner and Fahrenkamp will leave the company with the sale.
In 2023 XXXLutz bought Home24
The XXXLutz group of companies, which also includes Mömax and Poco, is one of the world’s largest furniture retailers with more than 370 furniture stores and 27,100 employees in 14 countries. According to the announcement, annual sales amount to 6 billion euros. XXXLutz only took over the online furniture retailer Home24 in 2023.
Porta has been around since 1965. At that time, the first furniture store was built near Porta Westfalica. Today the company is one of the largest German furniture retailers. There are currently 26 large Porta furniture stores and 95 Möbel Boss branches in operation in this country. In 2023, the group recorded sales of more than 1.1 billion euros in Germany, according to the trade research institute EHI.
dpa
Source: Stern
