The billionaire warehouse debt The 14 that would make the rescue difficult

Almacenes La 14 announced on July 24 that in January 2021 he had been admitted by theto the Corporate Superintendent to launch the reorganization processbecause the COVID-19 pandemic has left them in serious financial difficulty.

Despite the fact that the government has announced that it will seek to help the company, to preserve the jobs it generates, the outlook is not very encouraging, since the company has debts close to 1.15 trillion pesos. and other economic problems that the company has Family business Cardona

According to El Tiempo, the family owns Calima Desarrollos Inmobiliarios S. S., a conglomerate that had to respond to the problems of the other trading company, since it guarantees at least five bank loans of 262,000 million pesos which have not been repaid for 90 days.

After the admission of Almacenes La 14 to the restructuring process, The Cardona family real estate has also entered the same process, after the application was made on December 18, 2020, and the process is carried out in parallel as the two companies are dependent on each other.

According to the newspaper, the indebtedness of the company and the fact that the owners waited a long time to come out of the crisis, the search to save the warehouses is still complicated.

the presidential adviser, Víctor Muñoz; the promoter and president of the company, Luis Eduardo Pérez; the Minister of Commerce, María Ximena Lombana; and the Deputy Minister of Commerce in charge Luis Fernando Fuentes met to discuss the economic problem.

At Radio Calidad, Pérez assured that they would seek to keep the company’s jobs.

We are going to discuss the situation, seeking, as has been done for years, a solution that allows jobs to be maintained, that, in this difficult period for the city and the country, does not generate a negative impact, above all, to preserve this heritage that is La 14 for the inhabitants of Cali.

The chain of commerce is in the process of commercial reorganization and the request for judicial liquidation has been made to avoid affecting its workers and creditors.

Document revealing the difficult situation of warehouses

In the document dated July 22, Luis Eduardo Pérez Borrero, legal representative of Almacenes La 14 SA and Calima Desarrollos Inmobiliarios SA, declares that to date, said companies “are in a critical and irreversible situation”, therefore asks that the opening of the judicial liquidation of the two companies be decreed “to avoid further damage to creditors”.

The 14 have submitted since December 2020 the request to start the reorganization process and they have undertaken different business strategies focused on customers, suppliers, process optimization and even digital tools, however, this has not happened. positive development.

“The company is convinced that it is an instrument of responsible protection for creditors, allies, employees and shareholders. Almacenes LA 14 SA would like to thank its customers, suppliers and allies for understanding and supporting the sustainability of a business project which, for more than 55 years, has shown that it is an actor in a socio-economic ecosystem. important which contributes to the development of the region and the countryside. The organization will maintain its policy of reporting on the progress made since the beginning of this path of corporate reorganization “, they communicated in January of this year.

But given the covid-19 pandemic, the company had already bid farewell to Bogotá in November 2020. The chain arrived in the capital in 2011 and had an investment of $ 60,000 million, it was also established in the Calima shopping center, also owned by him, but which has become Mall Plaza and where the Ikea brand operates today. But with this withdrawal, they announced that their stores 26 stores in Cali, Valle del Cauca and other municipalities will continue to operate.

“Thank you very much for your support and loyalty. Our store in Bogotá is operating until November 16, 2020. We look forward to serving you with all Attitude 14 in our warehouses across the country “, was the message with which they said goodbye.

According to the ranking of the 5,000 largest companies in Colombia in 2020 by Dinero, La 14 was ranked 178, with a turnover of 971,223 million dollars, which is equivalent to a change of -13.8% from the previous year. On the other hand, in its profits it brought in -120,445 million with a variation of 64.8%.

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