The prefabricated house supplier Scalahaus Holzbau GmbH based in Eugendorf (Flachgau) filed an application for the opening of a renovation procedure at the Salzburg Regional Court on Thursday. As informed by the domestic creditor protection associations, the liabilities amount to around EUR 13.1 million. Around 300 creditors and 88 employees are affected. The company should be continued. The creditors are offered a quota of 20 percent within two years.
According to Scalahaus, the causes of insolvency lie, among other things, in the considerable price increases in construction costs – for example due to Covid-19 and most recently the Ukraine crisis. These were not foreseeable in the calculation in the drastic form. For example, the costs for sawn timber rose by around 90 percent within six months, which hit a supplier of prefabricated houses in timber construction particularly hard. “At the same time, the construction cost index has risen by around 20 percent,” the company said. Fixed price commitments as the cause Due to fixed price commitments, these enormous price jumps could not be passed on to customers, which led to undercalculated house prices. The management underestimated the risks and costs of the construction project. Ultimately, the current liabilities would have multiplied due to the loss situation towards tax creditors, banks, suppliers and producers. As the company announced on Thursday, the renovation process is intended to ensure that all houses that have already been sold or under construction can be completed and jobs can be secured. “Our primary goal is that all construction families who have decided on a Scala house also get it,” said a spokesman. As of Thursday, around 60 prefabricated houses were under construction. Losses grew as sales increased. For customers, Scalahaus offers assistance on its website https://www.scalahaus.at and has its own hotline on 06225/288 01 600 (Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.). The company has recently grown significantly in terms of sales and number of employees. While EUR 7.4 million was generated in the 2019 financial year, it was already EUR 20.4 million in 2020 and EUR 31.4 million in 2021. Despite this increase in sales, losses were regularly made – in 2021 the balance sheet loss was EUR 8.8 million. According to its own statements, the prefabricated house manufacturer achieved a market share of five percent in Austria in 2021.
source site-12