Interior’s liquidated in Le Havre: 800 customers abandoned, more than a million euros in damage

For many, it is their life savings. 800 customers of the furniture brand Interior’swhose head office is located in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), boulevard Jules-Durand (Editor’s note: figure as of June 25, 2024), lost between a few hundred and several thousand euros.

The Interior’s company was created in 1977 in Le Havre

More than 1.1 million euros, this is the total loss for customers of the company which have not been delivered. Placed in compulsory liquidation on April 26, 2024 by the Le Havre commercial court with, initially, continued activity until July 26, it finally closed its doors on May 24 at the request of the court.

Created in 1977 by Jean-Michel Le Broussoisthe Le Havre company, bought in 2013 by Olivier Elmalek and Edgard Bonte, is no more. Just like the 32 stores present in France, employing 182 employees.

Consequence: hundreds of orders placed between fall 2023 and May 2024 were not honored, representing as many distraught customers throughout France.

A Facebook group brings together Interior’s customers after the liquidation

Shortly after the liquidation, Axelle Vinckx created a group on the social network Facebook called Collectif des clients affected by the judicial liquidation of Interior’s. A group that already has more than 1,400 members, nearly 800 of whom have declared their claim pour a total amount as of June 25, 2024 of 1.144 million euros and which is considering legal action against the directors.

Axelle Vinckx, who lives in the Paris region, has four orders pending, and estimates her loss at 4,000 euros, all of which has already been paid in full. “It’s quite unfair that customers aren’t better protected under French law,” she regrets.

“When I see all these customers being robbed,” laments Thomas (not his real name), a former employee of the brand. “I left the company because the sales policy was misleading. They inflated prices and then offered discounts of 40 to 60%. The company treated customers like fools“, testifies the former employee.

Certificates of irrecoverability sent to clients by the liquidator

For Eva Paillé, a customer of the Mérignac store, the damage amounts to 5,000 euros, representing the purchase of a bedroom and two sofas during an order placed in January 2024 which was to be delivered in April, then in May. A sum she will never see again.

” I’ve had a rejection with receipt of the certificate of irrecoverability (Editor’s note: a document which certifies that the debtor does not have the means to pay his debt) transmitted by the judicial liquidator Me Catherine Vincent, last week. I know I won’t get the money back from the moment the certificate was issued to me. »

“What bothers me is that the management continued to leave the website with promotions. As a result, people continued to buy. There is such a thing as a society going under, but it is the way of doing things that is wrong,” adds Eva Paillé.

Claim actions taken by customers who have paid in full

Living in Eure, it is at the Interior’s store in Rouen that Sylvie Gruel visited on February 2, 2024. “My husband and I had been looking for chairs for a long time. In store, we splurged on six dining room chairs on sale and a bed box. We had a lot of fun at 2,724 euros. The items were not available but we could order and pay in four installments without charge,” says the retiree.

Although the monthly payments were debited, the furniture was never received. In mid-May, worried about not having ” no information “, she goes to the store. “And there, I am told that they are working until July 26 to deliver [nos] clients. » Out of prudence, she declared her claim the next day.

“Today, my only hope is that my goods will be found,” says Sylvie, who carried out a claim for recovery like many other customers. Clearly, furniture paid for by its owners cannot be resold in future auctions. Around forty containers are in fact blocked by carriers to whom Interior’s owes money.

The two leaders explain the fall of Interior’s

Many customers therefore feel “ripped off”, the two leaders Olivier Elmalek and Edgard Bonte explain themselves through the voice of an advisor: “In 2013, they took over this company created in Le Havre at the end of the 1970s when it was on the verge of bankruptcy following poor strategic choices and abysmal financial losses. Significant work by the teams and new owners (clearance of debts, massive capital injections, modernization of collections and image, launch of e-commerce, rationalization of costs) enabled the Interior’s company to become profitable again in 2019 »

If society had resisted the Covid crisis, the situation would have worsened three years later according to them. From 2022, the company has had to face new difficulties because of the fragility of the furniture sector, which is very cyclical and therefore sensitive to economic turbulence. These were in turn the war in Ukraine, the rise in the cost of energy, inflation, the rise in interest rates, and then the subsequent fall in real estate transactions.

In July 2022, the managers “requested and obtained the opening of a safeguard procedure with the Le Havre commercial court. After a one-year observation period by the court, Interior’s obtained, in July 2023, from the same court, the validation of a ten-year debt repayment plan.

“Faced with this new situation, and in complete transparency with the Le Havre commercial court and the judicial administrator, the directors of Interior’s sought to ensure, once again, the continuation of the activity, the safeguarding of the “employment and taking into account customer expectations, whose loyalty to the brand has never wavered”, they report in a press release.

Today they say to themselves “bitter about the current situation”which “puts an end to more than ten years of effort at the bedside of this iconic brand and leaves loyal customers in difficulty, customers whose emotions they perfectly understand, having personally lost a lot of money trying to turn Interior’s around “.

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