Fischer Oberflächentechnologie: Insolvency as an opportunity for restructuring

Fischer Oberflächentechnologie, a company specializing in injection molding and electroplating, develops and produces large and small series of plastic parts chrome-plated in real metal on behalf of the international automotive industry. By filing for insolvency, the company is taking advantage of the opportunities for sustainable restructuring. The court granted the application by order dated February 23, 2023, and appointed attorney Jens Lieser of Lieser Rechtsanwälte in Koblenz as provisional insolvency administrator. The wages and salaries of the total of 220 employees are secured until the end of April 2023 via insolvency benefits from the Federal Employment Agency. Attorney Lieser has already applied for advance financing of the insolvency money. According to Lieser, the primary goal of the reorganization is the continuation of the company and the preservation of as many jobs as possible. Business operations at Fischer's headquarters in Katzenelnbogen and at the other location in Seelbach will continue without restriction. While at the Seelbach site, plastic parts are injection-molded according to individual customer requirements, in Katzenelnbogen the plastic parts are subsequently chrome-plated in real metal using special electroplating processes. Fischer's other group companies, which are mainly located in Liberec in the Czech Republic near the German border, are not affected by the insolvency.

The provisional insolvency administrator Jens Lieser and his team are currently obtaining an overview of the company and will explore all options for action in order to find a solution for the future. "My first impression makes me quite optimistic, since Fischer, as a premium supplier of high-quality products in chrome design, has a well-functioning and sustainable business model as well as excellent long-standing customer relationships. Certainly, due to the general market situation, adjustments in the price structure will have to be made by all suppliers to the automotive industry. This affects all market participants equally and is already common practice in the industry to some extent," says restructuring expert Lieser. The demand for highly specialized and innovative surface finishing of plastic parts in premium quality is great and Fischer is one of the market leaders. The sharp rise in raw material prices since the last few years for copper, nickel and palladium, for example, has caused problems for the company, as it has not been able to pass on the price increases in raw material purchases in their entirety to customers. When the Ukraine war broke out in February 2022 and, as a result, energy prices shot up many times over in a short period of time, this hit Fischer particularly hard. As a manufacturing company with high energy requirements for the production of plastic parts in the injection molding process and for electroplating, the additional costs for energy requirements proved to be a considerable financial burden for the company. As a result, Fischer found itself increasingly in the red, and ultimately through no fault of its own. When it was no longer possible to prevent the financial imbalance, the management filed for insolvency at an early stage and in a consistent manner in order to take advantage of the opportunities for sustainable restructuring.