ᐅ Would you consider buying from a bankrupt kitchen manufacturer?

Hello everyone,

As announced today (but already long expected), the kitchen manufacturer Alno is insolvent and has filed for bankruptcy.
Our current plan was to buy an Alno kitchen through the kitchen studio, but nothing has been signed yet. Alno itself says they will continue producing as usual. From many industries, we know that insolvency does not necessarily mean the end of a company – but I don’t know if that applies here as well.

So my question is: do you have experience with this situation, and would you still consider buying from a manufacturer in insolvency, or is it too risky since this has happened before and eventually no spare parts or service were available?
In my opinion, it shouldn’t be a problem in most cases, since it is not the kitchen studio that is insolvent, just the manufacturer. Spare parts might be more difficult to get, but service should still be available. Moreover, appliances are probably more prone to faults than kitchen cabinets and countertops.

What do you think? Thanks for your opinions!

Best regards,
Tom

I would go with a storage kitchen, order it, but I wouldn’t make any advance payments. There are plenty of others that are neither more expensive nor worse. Karsten

Under no circumstances would I pay in advance.

Insolvency proceedings are intended to restructure companies, not primarily to liquidate them.
Buying nothing from such a company often amounts to a death blow—but what can you do... if the manufacturer is gone and there is no successor, spare parts are no longer available, and the warranty is worthless. The retailer provides a two-year statutory warranty and that’s it (if different, it would be an additional service).

You are not buying directly from the manufacturer, but from the kitchen showroom. Therefore, they are your contractual partner, and fundamentally, it is their responsibility, not yours.

However, ask your kitchen showroom how they handle this.

The issue could later be more about spare parts availability.

The insolvency likely affects the subsidiary Wellmann as well. Pino and Impuls are also other subsidiaries, but they are probably not affected yet. If you decide to switch to a different kitchen brand, I would recommend choosing a completely different manufacturer instead of looking at the subsidiaries. In such a corporate network, it’s unclear what kind of chain reactions an insolvency might trigger.

The issue I see is that even if production continues, delivery dates may not be met in such uncertain times (due to staff layoffs, advance payment to suppliers, etc.). You might end up signing a contract with the kitchen retailer that then has to be canceled shortly before delivery because Alno stops production after all. This would leave you without a kitchen at first. Meanwhile, other kitchen manufacturers will have increased demand, which will likely extend their delivery times.

Thanks first of all for the initial responses. So it’s pretty much as I suspected. The contract is with my kitchen retailer, so initially it’s their responsibility (in terms of warranty). When it comes to spare parts, it gets more complicated. A good point is also cancellation or uncertain delivery times—who is ultimately responsible? Do you actually have any claim against the retailer or the manufacturer?

In any case, I will ask my kitchen retailer what they have to say about this (they don’t only work with Alno, if needed).

A quick note regarding the deposit. This isn’t an issue for us because none of the retailers we visited required a deposit, but here I agree with the above: I pay the deposit to the kitchen retailer (my contractual partner) and not to the insolvent manufacturer. So, I am definitely on the safe side there.