According to the “Nordbayerische Kuriers”, the Hof Kiddy employees have filed for insolvency. Already in June 2017 the child seat manufacturer Kiddy from Hof had applied for insolvency proceedings in its own administration. Accordingly, there had been problems with the Chinese joint venture company Kiddy Shanghai. Now the court ordered a provisional insolvency administration on 26 March.

If customers currently want to buy Kiddy prams or child seats in online shops, this is not possible because the products are either “not available” or “sold out” in the online shops. It is also not possible to reorder the items.

According to Kiddy employees, the employees of the child seat manufacturer filed for bankruptcy last Tuesday. This was confirmed by the responsible local court Hof. The reasons for this are the lack of wage payments for the months of January and February. In addition, according to the “Nordbayerischen Kuriers”, the Kiddy employees have already laid down their work.

Insolvency proceedings in the past

Kiddy has been experiencing financial problems for almost two years now. In June 2017, managing director Bettina Würstl and lawyer Gunther Neef, who had joined the management as an interim restructuring expert and insolvency administrator under insolvency law, announced to the “Nordbayerische Kuriers” that they intended to conduct insolvency proceedings under their own administration. At the time, it was said that the problems were attributable to the Chinese joint venture company Kiddy Shanghai.

At that time, the managing director of the Kiddy sister company is said to have disappeared and left the company with high liabilities. Even though Kiddy Shanghai had been legally independent, the loss of trust among suppliers had also been transferred to the sister company, Neef said in June 2017. As a result, production bottlenecks are said to have occurred, which accordingly also had an impact on the German Kiddy GmbH.

At that time, the managing directors Würstl and Neef were still optimistic that they would quickly get the problems under control again.

Kiddy headquarters without employees

Now the problems seem to be topical again. Employees of companies located in the outbuilding report about an empty Kiddy headquarters.

Managing director Bettina Würstl told the “Nordbayerischen Kuriers” that she did not want to make a statement: “We are currently holding talks with investors”, she said briefly and concisely. After receipt of the insolvency petition, the Hof district court had asked the child seat manufacturer for a statement, the deadline for this was 10 days. On Tuesday, 26 March, a provisional insolvency administration was finally ordered.

Kiddy GmbH looks back on 50 years of company history, the future of which seems uncertain.

 

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Image: Kiddy

//JP