After creditors had previously agreed to the reorganisation plan of decoration chain Casa International, the Commercial Court has now also given its approval.
Setback due to corona virus
The plan guarantees that all creditors will receive their money in one year at the latest, writes newspaper De Standaard. Suppliers would be reimbursed 90%, while intragroup companies would receive only 40%.
Casa is owned by the Dutch Blokker family. The decoration company has been making losses for a number of years and suffers from a high level of debt. In 2017, the strategic plan 20.20 was launched in order to give the company a future again. This included a new distribution centre in Olen, a new store concept and a fully-fledged omni-channel strategy.
At the beginning of this year, the owner family converted 69.5 million euro of debts into capital. This was not only intended to give the company a healthier base; it was also a signal to the suppliers. At that time, the worst seemed to be behind, as turnover was 10% higher than during the same period a year earlier.
However, the outbreak of the corona crisis meant another major setback for Casa. Just before the summer, the company filed a petition for judicial reorganisation. That plan has now been approved.
“Confidence in the future”
CEO Giane Van Landuyt is pleased to turn the “black page” in Casa’s history and looks to the future with confidence. “The perseverance and resilience of our employees in Belgium and across the 8 countries in which we operate has helped us to recover part of the revenue loss after the first lockdown.”
The company now wants to proceed with the completion of the strategic plan. “In doing so, we will focus even more on the further digitisation of our company and on making the renewed, upward positioning of our interior chain even more visible”, she concludes.
Casa has more than 500 stores in eight countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland) and employs around 3100 people.
