Attempts are now being made to stabilize business operations. Dietmar Penzlin from the law firm SJPP has been appointed as provisional insolvency administrator for Bree Collection GmbH (Hamburg). According to him, 40 employees are affected and will receive insolvency benefits for the time being. The branch in Austria and the eight stores in Germany as well as the online business will remain open, while the three branches in Switzerland are not affected by the insolvency as they are operated by an independent company.
The company’s aim is to sell the business to a new investor as part of a transferred restructuring – by the beginning of April 2024.
For over 50 years, Bree has stood for an intelligent symbiosis of design, function and quality. Natural leather was a fascination for the company founders, but other innovative materials were also used in line with the “back to nature” philosophy. Product functionality and sustainability are also important aspects of the brand’s corporate philosophy.
Bree was founded in 1970 in Isernhagen near Hanover by the designers Wolf Peter Bree and his wife Renate. In 2001, the company was taken over by the two sons, who left in 2012 and 2018 respectively. The company headquarters were relocated to Hamburg. The last business figures published by the company in the Federal Gazette were a loss of around 5.1 million euros in 2021, following a loss of around 5 million euros in 2020.
