Ouni's board of directors called an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday 28 September. On the agenda were important decisions, such as whether to cease operations or to continue despite a more than delicate financial situation. (Photo: Christophe Lemaire/Maison Moderne/archives)

Ouni's board of directors called an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday 28 September. On the agenda were important decisions, such as whether to cease operations or to continue despite a more than delicate financial situation. (Photo: Christophe Lemaire/Maison Moderne/archives)

Faced with persistent financial problems, Ouni's board of directors called an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday 28 September to decide whether or not to continue the company's activities.

The Ouni shop, dedicated to selling unpackaged products, is----experiencing major financial problems and is on the verge of closing down for good.

In a letter addressed to the members of the cooperative, the board of directors invited them to an extraordinary meeting. On the agenda were important decisions, such as whether to cease operations or to continue despite a more than delicate financial situation. In the same letter, the board even announced that the cooperative was close to being filed for bankruptcy by one of its creditors.

The board of directors stressed that it refuses to resort to loans to save the cooperative, a solution considered "irresponsible".

€350,000 in debt

The cooperative faces an urgent debt of €100,000, in addition to a long-term debt of €250,000. "We are not considering a new donation campaign or anything else. We don't want to engage the generosity of our members any further," assured Mim Schütz, an active member of the cooperative and a guest board member representing the shop and the members in Dudelange.

In November 2021, the cooperative was already in the red when it celebrated its fifth anniversary. Faced with serious financial difficulties, Ouni had tried to get back on track by looking for new cooperators and launching a crowdfunding campaign. Obviously, this was not enough. At the time, an estimated €100,000 was required by the end of the year, and about €100,000 more in the first quarter of 2022, Julien Gannard, president of the board of directors of the cooperative, told Delano’s sister publication Paperjam.

"Faced with financial difficulties, we have tried to get back on track. We have had a lot of positive and constructive feedback, but despite this, we have not managed to increase the number of customers and therefore turnover. Since last November, we have had a number of regular customers, but we are accumulating debts and today our backs are against the wall," explained a member of the board.

"Until last week, we hoped to continue with at least one shop, but it seems complicated and we are heading for bankruptcy. It's a situation that weighs on several points. We have 10 golden employees, we are the only zero waste grocery shop in the country and we can't get any customers. It's a difficult statement of failure," concluded Schütz, who still holds out a tiny hope of finding a solution by Wednesday.

Tensions

The difficulties of the cooperative can be explained by a multitude of factors. Firstly, the periods of confinement during the health crisis have weighed on the finances and attractiveness of the store, particularly in Dudelange. The second shop opened at the same time as the first lockdown in 2020. Subsequently, roadworks in the centre of Dudelange did not help matters.

As far as the management of the group is concerned, some members of the cooperative point the finger at the financial mismanagement of Joshua Streitz, manager of Ouni between 2020 and 2021. "He left the cooperative in a disastrous state," says a person close to the cooperative. Others go even further, suspecting the former manager of suspicious management of the co-op's accounts.

In addition, there have been departures from the cooperative due to differences of opinion, particularly on aspects of the strategic development of the store, with some members refusing any proposal for an external partnership for ideological reasons. In financial difficulty, the question of keeping two shops in the country also seems to have been at the heart of discussions in recent months.

"The question of keeping two shops has been raised for a long time, but has never been decided. On the one hand, there are those who want to keep the shop in Luxembourg-Gare, a historic location, at all costs. On the other hand, those who want to concentrate on Dudelange, which is still struggling to find its customers. In the end, things dragged on and no decision was taken. The governance has been completely out of date for months,” says another person close to the matter. They say there is "a certain panic at the moment and a form of amateurism".

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.