Palmers on course for the rescue: Creditors agree to a renovation plan!

Palmers on course for the rescue: Creditors agree to a renovation plan!

The creditors of the Austrian laundry company Palmer have approved a renovation plan that provides for a repayment of 20 percent of the liabilities. This was announced on May 20, 2025 and is a crucial step for the company that registered bankruptcy in February 2025. The renovation plan also provides for the planned entry of an international group of investors. According to Puls24 , the potential investors are a listed Turkish textile company, supported by a private equity company and a Swiss fund.

The Palmers believers can look forward to soon repayments, since the first quota payment must be made by June 30, 2025 in order to complete the renovation process. Since the bankruptcy, the company has already closed 47 branches and released over 100 employees. Of the originally more than 400 employees, there are now fewer than 400 employees. At the end of April 2025, only 70 own branches and 46 franchise branches were still open.

A look at the company history

Palmers was founded in 1914 by Ludwig Palmers in Innsbruck and received great fame from the 1950s through innovative poster advertising. Until 2004 the company was family -owned before it was in the hands of financial investors until 2015. Since 2015, Palmers' fortunes have been in the hands of the brothers Luca and Tino Wieser and Matvei Hutman. The company was confronted with a scandal during the coronapandemic: FFP2 masks that were advertised as "Made in Austria" actually came from China.

In the autumn of last year, Palmer tried to acquire fresh capital from small investors, which indicated financing problems that led to the current bankruptcy proceedings. These developments are part of a larger trend, because according to Falkensteg have increased the number of bankruptcy in the fashion industry in Germany, which also led to a significant decrease in the branches and employees at Palmers.

outlook for the industry

The prospects for the fashion industry are currently steamed because the consumer's mood is slowly recovering and consumers deal with their expenses more carefully. Sebastian Wilde, partner at Falkensteg, predicts a further increase in large-scale fashion insolvencies and expects that the challenges in the industry will continue to exist. Financing problems, an uncertain purchase mood and high costs are difficult for the industry.