Habitat (furniture chain)

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Habitat UK (parent company)

logo
legal form Limited Company
founding May 11, 1964
Seat Milton Keynes , UK
Number of employees 2,100
Branch Furniture and interiors
Website habitat.de

Habitat was a furniture chain with stores in the UK , France , Germany and Spain . The company was taken over in 1992 by the Ikano Group , which also includes IKEA , and sold to Hilco UK in 2009. The branches in Germany, France and Spain were taken over by the French company CAFOM SA in 2011 after the bankruptcy.

history

Habitat was founded in London in 1964 by the British designer Terence Conran . Initially, mostly exclusive furniture was sold, later more and more simple, timeless and comfortable furniture. The opening of stores in mainland Europe began in 1973 with the Paris store.

In 1981 Habitat went public. In 1982 Habitat merged with Mothercare, the world's largest supplier of baby products, and in 1983 took over competitor Heal's and the fashion chain Richard Shops. In 1986 the merger with British Home Stores followed to form Storehouse PLC, a group with almost 30,000 employees. After the founder Terence Conran had dealt more and more with the opening of restaurants and cafés, he separated from the group in 1990. In the early 1990s , new stores were added in Germany, France and Spain.

After the loss of Storehouse, the parent company of Habitat, Habitat switched to the Ikano Group in 1992 . Ingvar Kamprad , the owner of Ikano, returned to Habitat's UK focus on more exclusive furniture (like when Habitat was founded in 1964). A large number of regular customers in Great Britain then migrated to other providers.

In 2009 Ikano sold the furniture chain to the corporation Hilco UK, which specializes in corporate restructuring.

Habitat today consists of 36 stores in the UK, 26 in France, 4 in Spain and 5 in Germany. Habitat is represented by franchise companies in Belgium, Luxembourg, Iceland, Ireland and Thailand. On June 14th 2017 it was announced that Habitat is closing all of its stores in Belgium. Habitat is represented through retailers in Portugal, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Isle of Man, Indonesia and Greece.

Schadow-Arkaden in Düsseldorf , portal at Martin-Luther-Platz 22

In June 2011 it was announced that the owner was giving up Habitat. Most of the UK locations were in bankruptcy while the profitable German, Spanish and French branches were about to be sold.

The 38 branches in Germany, France and Spain were taken over by the French company Cafom, based in Paris. The Habitat brand and several branches in London were sold to the British Home Retail Group . The other Habitat branches in the UK have been closed. In 2016, the Home Retail Group was taken over by J Sainsbury .

In December 2018, the German Habitat agency, which at that time operated six stores in Germany, filed for bankruptcy. In March 2019, the insolvency administrator announced that all German shops of the Habitat Group will be closed in mid-2019 after the inventory has been sold and Habitat will leave the German market.

Individual evidence

  1. Rüdiger Jungbluth: The 11 secrets of IKEA success. Campus Verlag, 2006, ISBN 9783593377766 limited preview in Google Book Search
  2. ^ Nicola Harrison: Habitat sold to Hilco. In: retail-week.com. December 14, 2009, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  3. Habitat België sluit de deuren In: de Tijd
  4. Who are we? ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: habitat.de  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.habitat.eu
  5. Nobel furniture chain: Habitat is to be sold. In: Spiegel Online . June 27, 2011, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  6. site CAFOM, owner of the Habitat brand.
  7. The West: French company buys furniture chain Habitat. In: derwesten.de. July 8, 2011, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  8. Insolvency: Furniture retailer Habitat in Germany is based on a report by the daily Handelsblatt on December 18, 2018, accessed on March 17, 2019
  9. Düsseldorf also affected: Habitat closes all branches in Germany Report of the daily newspaper Rheinische Post from March 15, 2019, accessed on March 17, 2019

Web links