Bankruptcy in the millions: Flink files for bankruptcy in Austria
In October 2021, the Berlin gorilla competitor Flink started its express delivery service in Austria. Now the subsidiary with 163 employees is insolvent.
While the competitor Gorillas is negotiating a takeover with the Turkish model, the German competitor Flink has also developed into a powerful player in the slipstream without making any big headlines. But now the pink delivery service also has to take a hit: the Austrian subsidiary of the delivery service has filed for bankruptcy. The Alpine Association of Creditors (AKV) announced that the procedure at the Vienna Commercial Court had already been opened.
In the country, Flink has so far been active in the cities of Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck. The delivery service founded the subsidiary in September 2021, one month later she started operations. With the financial help of the German parent company, this business area should have been set up in Austria.
Double-digit million loss
The German parent company in Germany has initiated restructuring and is therefore still not providing any financial resources. According to a spokesman for Flink, it was not possible to make the business profitable in the foreseeable future. That’s why the ripcord was pulled. Most recently, 163 employees were employed at the twelve locations in the three cities, almost exclusively drivers and employees in the warehouses.
Whether the company will continue and whether debt relief will be requested through a restructuring plan must now be seen in the insolvency proceedings. According to the accounts payable association, previous sales attempts have been successful. The Flink spokesman also confirmed that sales negotiations had allegedly gone well. Outside of Germany, however, Flink is only active in France and the Netherlands. According to the spokesman, the company intends to remain active in these markets.
Overall, the liabilities of the Austrian Flink subsidiary amount to 22.4 million euros, of which around 18 million euros are due to the German parent company. To date, it has already collected almost one billion euros in investor funds.