After a half-hearted attempt at restructuring, the furniture company Moviflor finally has been declared insolvent in a Lisbon court.
A creditors' meeting has been called for January 7, 2015 which marks the end of the company whose store in Portimão burnt down and the one in Olhão closed suddenly along with others in the nationwide chain.
Moviflor, now called Albara, failed to follow the actions agreed in its Special Revitalisation Plan which was approved in December 2013.
The reasons behind the sudden closure of all outlets, announced on 1 October 2014, is being investigated by a public prosecutor after a complaint by the Union of Trade and Services Workers (CESP).
Loyal staff had been persuaded that all would be well as they continued to work for nothing.
Wage arrears mounted despite the court instructions to clear them. Not even the redundancy payments for staff at the burnt out store were made despite these being a key part of the special plan agreed to help save the business.
The claim by the company’s employees and creditors that Moviflor applied for the revitalisation plan only to buy some time may yet prove to be the case, in which case the directors will be guilty of more than a simple business failure.
Moviflor changed its name to Albará on October 13th, 2014 shortly after closing shutting up shop on the 1st October 2014 leaving the remaining 325 staff without payment, some had not been paid for a year or more.
In December 2013, members of the parliamentary group of the PCP were on the case and put questions to parliament surrounding, "the dramatic situation experienced by these workers and the despair of those who have several months of unpaid wages."
In November 2014, a new business opened under the name of the International Furniture Company at the old Moviflor site in Bobadela, near Lisbon with Carlos Alberto Jesus Ribeiro as director, selling the same stock as he ahd at Moviflor and trading as if nothing had happened, much to the consternation of the old Moviflor staff.
"Lenders have the right to be informed about this new company run by the same people as owned Moviflor," complains Lidia Oliveira, one of the employees affected by collective dismissal.
Ribeiro was until August 4 2014 the sole administrator of Moviflor SGPS, the holding company that owns 75% of Moviflor Angola and that ran Moviflor in Portugal. He now is a director of the International Furniture Company.
According to the financial results of 2013, Moviflor's losses exceeded €18.7 million (69% less than 2012), and sales were €31 million, down 63%.
The legality of the new store carefully will be looked at to see if the director Carlos Alberto Jesus Ribeiro is operating within the law and to see where the start up capital came from when Moviflor claimed it had no money to pay its staff.
In the meantime the staff join the list of unsecured creditors and will meet in January to discuss who was promised what, and no doubt will be told that the is no money left to distribute frm the old Moviflor. Whether they have a claim on the International Furniture Company remains to be seen.
Comments
As commented on elsewhere - So many of the thousands of Portuguese businesses that have 'started up' since the crisis were actually just 're-starts' of failed and failing businesses under a new name. Having wiped their debts- much of it to banks or dragging down perfectly good supplier businesses.
If they were failing and so fragile the first time round ... what hope do they offer the new post-crisis Portuguese economy ?
Yet no doubt will - through their connections- be first in line for any EU pump-priming seed investment for new businesses.
Why cannot someone 'straight and honest' (ok a genetic mutant 'Manny No-Mates') now look through the NIF numbers of the business start-ups for those owner / directors friends and family from the old failed bankrupts ?
Now we know that the President of the Republics - Cavaco's family have ownership of the 30 largest Portuguese businesses ... this cannot be difficult.
Somebody - just do it ! For the sake of the European Union.