The company assures that it has “everything ready” to declare the suspension of payments, a step that has been delayed for almost two years
Imaginarium does not throw in the towel. At least that’s what the managers of the Aragonese toy company say, which has been reduced to a minimum in recent years due to the crisis it is dragging on, a bulging backpack of debts that has compromised its viability. From the company they recognize having “everything is ready” to present in court the request for insolvency proceedings. Despite this, they claim that they are going to try to reactivate their diminished commercial network with the opening of eight new stores owned in Spain until the end of the year. All this, with the desire to rise from the ashes.
The company carries nearly two years in a pre-bankruptcy situation, but it has not had the obligation to urge judicial insolvency thanks to the moratorium on these processes approved by the Government to alleviate the economic effects of covid. The chain, which became a worldwide benchmark with its pioneering concept of educational toys, was already on the verge of going into dissolution five years ago, but it was avoided when it was bought by a group of international investors led by Federico Carrillo Zurcher. This Costa Rican lawyer is now alone in the business venture. Since the beginning of the year he has taken over almost all of the shareholders (99.94%).
The first movements to try to refloat Commercially the chain of toys have already begun to be produced. The company is in full transfer of the only two establishments of its property that remain in the national territory, located in Zaragoza and La Coruña. In the case of the Aragonese capital, last Saturday it closed the premises it had in the Aragonia shopping center to move to number 23 on Calle León XIII, a new location that is expected to open at the end of this week. In the Galician city, this Monday the store on Betanzos street has lowered its blinds, but the company assures that this week it will start the works to launch another one in a central location that it does not reveal at the moment.
“We are at the gates of presenting the bankruptcy proceedings, but we hope it will be continuity, not closure. We want to come out with flying colors to move forward”, explained Imaginarium sources. The statistics on what were previously known as payment suspensions do not play in favor of this wish coming true, since 90% of the companies that enter this phase end up liquidating.
“Active search for investors”
In the company they are convinced that survival is possible. The key to achieving it, they say, goes through re-increase the presence in physical commercein addition to the “active search for investors” that Federico Carrillo is doing. This strategy includes the opening of nine points of sale in Greece by the children’s fashion distributor Lapin House, one of them at the Athens airport. It is also reactivating its presence in Turkey through a master franchise that has opened a store and plans to launch another before the end of the year.
From the toy firm they assure that the “priority” is also to grow again in Zaragoza, where they trust in the short-term opening of one or two stores, in addition to the one that moves to León XIII street. The objective of the company is to close the year with ten establishments of its own in Spain, compared to the two that it currently has in the process of transfer, to which are added eight more that operate under franchise. “We want to return to local commerce to be at street level, not in shopping centers,” they commented.