More details surface following Nolte’s UK collapse

The UK arm of German bedroom furniture manufacturer Nolte Möbel owed creditors over £800,000 – mostly to its former parent company – ahead of being placed into administration.

Nicholas Cusack and Paul Bailey, both of Bailey Ahmad Ltd (trading as BABR) were appointed as joint administrators of Nolte Mobel Ltd on 2 May 2025.

The appointment followed Nolte Möbel GmbH & Co. KG announcing its closure, with the company initially beginning insolvency proceedings back in November 2023.

The UK entity separated from the group back in 2020 to operate independently, while continuing to source supplies under an existing contract with Nolte GmbН.

In late 2023, Nolte GmbH entered an insolvency procedure in Germany as detailed above. Despite the best effort of the restructuring process, the business continues to be subject to these proceedings, under the control of an insolvency expert in the region.

Most of its 250 employees left the German business in April 2025, and current reports suggest that production will formally cease in July 2025 should further investment not be found for the group.

As part of this restructure, on 10 April 2025 the Nolte GmbH informed the Company that it was unwilling to supply any further products to the UK market.

“This happened without any warning to the UK business, express or implied,” an administrators report said. “As a result, several orders were immediately cancelled at the production stage and the Company could not in good faith arrange further sales with retail customers with no prospect of such orders being fulfilled.

“The abrupt notice of supply termination left the UK business unable to rebrand or secure alternative suppliers in such a distressed situation. This severely disrupted cash flow and turnover.”

During this period, the Company had grown to rely on the financial support from Nolte GmbH (and other group entities) in respect of the cost of goods being shipped from Germany. By April 2025, this had grown to over £700,000.

“The Company was therefore insolvent on a balance sheet basis and had minimal future cash inflows to fund trading costs for much longer given the immediate termination of all future sales of Nolte items in the UK,” administrators said.

Furthermore, detailed in accounts filed on Companies House for the year ended 31 December 2023, the report stated a loss of £142,481 and had net liabilities of £44,659. Moreover, the accounts noted that trading during 2024 had been ‘challenging due to low levels of consumer confidence’ and that ‘losses have not yet reduced on 2023’.

Upon appointment, the administrators were unable to continue trading the company. However, efforts were made to fulfil as many pre-appointment customer orders as possible, with administrators engaging directly with the company’s customers, offering a 20% discount on all outstanding orders.

At the time of the report, all pre-appointment orders have been successfully delivered, and the corresponding invoices have been issued to customers.

With regards to creditors, preferential employee creditor claims totalled £12,000, while the HMRC is owed £60,000. Unsecured creditors are owed £827,000 with around £760,000 owed to the German company. Further claims of £25,000 are owed to staff and £95,000 owed to the trade. It is expected that creditors will suffer a shortfall of £132,000.

Administrators also confirmed the business will be dissolved upon completion of any distributions made regarding creditors.

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