Long-term employees of Kika/Leiner will, due to longer notice periods, only be without salary in the summer. It is estimated that two-thirds of the workforce have been on board for more than five years, said the managing director of the GPA NÖ union, Michael Pieber, to APA.

Details on Employment Foundation for Kika/Leiner Employees in Lower Austria Open

Affected individuals in Lower Austria and Vienna can, if needed, make use of an employment foundation for training and further education. According to Pieber, the employment foundation in Lower Austria was recently decided upon. However, there are "no details yet" on the design of the employment foundation. The union representative had words of praise for the Insolvency Remuneration Fund (IEF), the Chamber of Labor, and Kika/Leiner insolvency administrator Volker Leitner. The IEF "perfectly" collaborated with the Chamber of Labor and paid out the outstanding salaries in less than two weeks. Leitner has so far handled the company's liquidation "in a particularly good manner." The closed Kika/Leiner furniture stores are currently being completely cleared out and cleaned so they can be returned to Supernova. The Graz-based real estate developer Supernova, as the owner of the Kika/Leiner properties, is now preparing the sale or long-term rental of the 17 furniture stores closed at the end of January. "Unfortunately, we cannot say more about this at the moment, the process will certainly take several months," a Supernova spokesperson recently said in response to an APA inquiry. Through the auction platform Aurena, the furniture chain's inventory, business equipment, fleet, and furnishings of the company headquarters will be sold until February 28.

After Kika/Leiner Insolvency: Are Higher Furniture Prices Now Threatening?

The bankruptcy of Kika/Leiner will lead to higher market concentration in the furniture trade and could bring faster furniture price increases. Kika/Leiner still made 300 million euros in sales last year. "That's six percent market share," said industry expert Andreas Kreutzer to "Ö1" last Thursday. After the market exit of the furniture chain, the sales will "distribute relatively proportionally to all other remaining competitors." According to industry observers, XXXLutz recently covered 35 percent of the market, followed by Ikea with around 20 percent and the specialist trade with 12 percent. The dominance of the Lutz Group, which also includes Möbelix and Mömax, will continue to grow towards 40 percent, said the representative of the furniture retailers, Christian Wimmer, to "Ö1". "Since the competition, especially in the large area, is now very, very weak, it could be that furniture prices will increase somewhat faster or somewhat faster in the coming years than was the case in the past," Kreutzer expects.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.