Swiss investor buys back Conforama

In 2011, the South African Steinhoff Group had taken over the French furniture retail group Conforama; now Conforama Suisse has been sold to a Swiss investor. The Swiss daily newspaper "Blick" reported the buyer to be the entrepreneur Dan Mamane (48), who has been negotiating with Steinhoff International for over a year. According to "Blick", the economics graduate has so far invested exclusively in companies from the electronics industry; a company of the size of Conforama Switzerland has not been part of his portfolio before. In 2019, the 22 Swiss Conforama branches generated sales of SFR 450 million (around EUR 419 million); Dan Mamane's Power Data Holding, in turn, "only" achieved sales of around SFR 100 million (around EUR 93 million).

Steinhoff makes settlement offer

Scandals have been accumulating at Steinhoff in recent years: At the end of 2017, it turned out that the South African trading group with German roots had "fluffed up" its balance sheet by more than EUR 6 billion, and as a result the share price plummeted massively.

There are now around 90 lawsuits against the company from shareholders and partners with a total value of over EUR 7 billion. So what now? Now the company is offering the plaintiffs a settlement, as reported by the news agency Reuters. The total value of the offer amounts to EUR 850 million, i.e. little more than 10 % of the amount claimed. Steinhoff wants to pay half of this amount in cash and half in shares of its African subsidiary Pepkor. According to Steinhoff CEO Louis du Preez, the company had been working for twelve months to put together the settlement. "In our view these terms are firmly in the best interests of all stakeholders," Reuters quotes him as saying. Without an agreement, Steinhoff is threatened with closure.

Mömax opens two stores in Switzerland

Mömax, the discount offshoot of the Austrian XXXLutz Group, has opened its first two stores in Switzerland. The doors in Spreitenbach (Aargau) and Emmen (Lucerne) opened in August. Both locations had previously been occupied by Interio furniture stores, which belonged to Migros until autumn 2019, but were then taken over by XXXLutz together with four other Swiss Interio stores. Mömax had offered the approximately 200 employees in Spreitenbach and Emmen continued employment; a large proportion are said to have accepted the offer. Also in autumn 2019, XXXLutz had taken over the Swiss Pfister Group; this means that the Lutz Group is also a considerable player in the Swiss market now. Four more Mömax houses are to open by the end of November.

Westwing with 90% more sales in the second quarter

According to a report by the platform Gründerszene, Westwing was able to increase sales by 90% in the second quarter of 2020. This would mean that the Munich-based company would have generated revenues of around EUR 110m in this period, as the figure for the second quarter of 2019 was a good EUR 58m. Westwing is correspondingly positive for the year as a whole and now expects a growth of between 25% and 35%.

Golze: All-round service for online shops

As a competent partner for e-commerce, Golze offers extensive image and text material for an optimal online product presentation. The various illustrations show Golze's carpets and mats as realistically as possible: as a whole, in detail (material composition and structure) and in a larger context (as part of a room). There will also be product videos for online shops in the future.

Golze also provides marketing texts for all products, emphasizing their advantages and special features. All (technichal) article information is made available via various file formats, which makes it easier to import the data into the online shop. In addition, information on delivery capability or product availability can be transmitted to customers on a daily basis.

Golze has long been active in the field of dropshipping and delivers the goods directly and in neutral packaging to the end consumer, thus e-commerce partners save storage space.

XXXLUTZ Group becomes market leader in France

WM Holding GmbH, a company of the XXXLutz Group, is taking over Conforama France - subject to the approval of the French competition authority. WM Holding had already taken over the French furnishing chain BUT in 2016. Both BUT and Conforama are to be run separately from each other and operate independently on the market. With a turnover of more than EUR 2 billion, Conforama is number 2 in France, BUT is number 3 with a turnover of EUR 2 billion. Through the takeover, the XXXLutz Group will become the market leader in France, overtaking Ikea.

September issue of Maison & Objet digital only

The September edition of the Paris furnishing show Maison & Objet will not be held in the usual format. Instead, a "digital fair" will be held from 4 to 18 September, in particular via the online platform MOM (Maison & Objet and More).

Paris Design Week, for its part, will take place from 3 to 12 September 2020 in the participating showrooms spread throughout the city.

Maison & Objet will also be held again as usual in January 2021. The Work! and Projects sections, originally planned for September, will be part of the January event.

EMV: More revenue, fewer shareholders

Purchasing joint venture Europa Möbel-Verbund (EMV) recorded a 2.8% increase in its centrally managed revenue for 2019, up to EUR 1.29 billion. Distributable profit of EUR 16.2 million was up 5.4% versus the previous year, and the company now has 492 shareholders. This number has been decreasing, as at the end of 2018 EMV had 511 SME furniture retailers as its alliance members. Full-range merchant Segmüller joined the alliance in January 2020.

Salone del Mobile postponed to 2021

There will be no Milan furniture fair in 2020, as the organiser of the Salone Internationale del Mobile, originally moved back to June, has now cancelled the event. The next Salone will be held April 13 – 18, 2021.

Metin Yilmaz (3K) passed away

The industry is mourning the death of a great entrepreneur and visionary: in May 2020, Metin Yilmaz, founder of the Istanbul carpet export company 3K, died at the age of 60.