During the past years, the Fintyre Group was ploughing through the European tyre dealer landscape with great force. In our region, Fintyre documented its desire for expansion with acquisitions of the wholesale companies RS Exklusiv, Reifen Krieg and the Reiff Group. For a long time, there have been rumours in the market focusing on the solvency of the group. Due to the relevance and size of the player, speculations have been accelerating – reaching from insolvency to entry of a new investor.
When asked by AutoRäderReifen-Gummibereifung, the management of the Italian headquarters said at the beginning of February: “While the German wholesale business has negatively been influenced by a big market downturn and increasing logistics costs, the Italian wholesale and retail business have been developing in a solid way. The company has closely been working together with its proprietors and important stakeholders in order to guarantee that both business areas will be financially sound in spite of these new market conditions. Fintyre has continued to work as it usually does." This statement confirmed the opinion of those, who considered the business of the group to be highly endangered in Germany. Our editors also received a letter from Claudio Passerini directed to the employees, in which he announced that due to immediately necessary restructuring measures aiming at a “sustainable continuation”, it was unavoidable to postpone the payment of wages and salaries. Even more dramatic events were to be unfolded.
No later than 6th February, it became obvious that the management team with Mauro Pessi as Executive Chairman and Claudio Passerini as Chief Executive Officer had completely failed when executing the order of the investor. On that day, Claudio Passerini, as managing director, filed an application for insolvency proceedings into the property of Reifen Krieg GmbH, Reiff, tyre1 and RS Exclusiv with the county court Frankfurt am Main. On 11th February, insolvency proceedings were initiated into the property of Reiff Reifen und Autotechnik GmbH, tyre1 Management GmbH, tyre1 GmbH & Co KG and RS Exclusiv Reifengroßhandel GmbH. Thus, the worst assumptions concerning the insolvency of the Fintyre Group were confirmed. (Kay Lehmkuhl)
