Furniture manufacturer Hülsta is threatened with ceasing operations

The ailing German furniture manufacturer Hülsta is on the verge of collapse. The employees were informed at a meeting “that there was a risk of operations being suspended when insolvency proceedings were opened on June 1st,” said the provisional insolvency administrator, Christoph Morgen, this week. Until then, all existing customer orders should be fulfilled as best as possible.

MWS Westfalen Works NDS GmbH & Co. KG and MWS Works Westfalen GmbH, known under the name Hülsta, had filed for insolvency with the Münster district court. The German employment agency will pay insolvency money for the 280 employees from March to May.

According to the company’s own statements, the reason for the financial difficulties of the company from Stadtlohn is a considerable decline in sales as well as external factors such as the difficult market situation, which meant that sales could not be expected to cover costs. “The company is confronted with a challenging market situation in the furniture sector. The weak consumer climate and the slowdown in the construction of new apartments are having a negative impact on the industry. In particular, the ‘other furniture’ segment, which includes living, dining and bedroom furniture from MWS Westfalen Works NDS GmbH and Co. KG recorded a massive drop in sales in the last quarter,” Managing Director Stefan Hainke is quoted as saying in a press release. Negotiations are now underway with the insolvency administrator as to how things could proceed.

The furniture industry is going through difficult times. As a result of consumers’ reluctance to buy, sales fell by 4.3 percent last year. In the area of ​​living, dining and bedroom furniture, sales even fell by more than twelve percent.

Not the first bankruptcy

Hülsta-Werke Hüls GmbH & Co. KG had already filed for bankruptcy in October 2022. The process was completed at the end of last year, after which a new investor took over. Now the successor companies are also insolvent. The company has been around since 1940.