The furniture brand Alinéa is once again placed in receivership, after having accumulated 47 million euros in losses in 2024, despite the support of the Mulliez family.
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The 1,200 employees of the French furniture brand Alinéa are worried. Their company is once again placed in receivership. This is what the Marseille court has just decided, Thursday November 20. Already in serious financial difficulties, the company was placed in recovery in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Taken over at the time by its own shareholders – the Mulliez family, owner of Auchan –, Alinéa failed to recover, recording a deficit of 47 million euros in 2024, for a turnover of 162 million. A very complicated situation, but it is not the end of the adventure.
This new receivership provides for an observation period of six months, time for management to find one or more buyers. The activity will therefore continue, but in an unstable situation to say the least. Management must present its plan for continued activity on January 12, 2026. Although Alinéa belongs to the powerful Mulliez family, the judges note that the company founded in 1989 in Avignon can no longer meet its debts.
This brand is added to others, also in difficulty, and whose number is increasing. Habitat, Maison du Monde, Casa, Gaultier furniture… many brands are closing stores and laying off en masse in the face of two combined phenomena: the real estate crisis and Asian competition. Fewer homes on the market also mean fewer interior amenities. According to the Institute for Prospecting and Studies of Furniture (IPEA), the furniture market fell by 3% in 2024 in France.
Faced with Asian competition, ready-to-wear, as well as the furniture and decoration sector, are paying the price for platforms like Shein and Temu, which are expanding their commercial strategy. Clothing and furniture are the same victims of fast fashion (ultra-ephemeral fashion at discounted prices), and of consumers’ concerns about their purchasing power.
