Insolvencies

Bankruptcy: “At some point it won’t work out”

A young entrepreneur in Hallein's old town was hit by bankruptcy.

(Bild: ANDREAS TRÖSTER)

Salzburg is Austria's number 1 in terms of the increase in private bankruptcies. The debt counseling service is alarmed. A victim from Hallein tells us.

With a 6.7 percent increase, Salzburg has the highest increase in personal bankruptcies in all of Austria. The "Krone" newspaper reported. This alarms Peter Niederreiter, head of the Salzburg Debt Advisory Service: "We are also seeing rising figures." Niederreiter goes into more detail: "A third of those affected are self-employed, mainly sole traders. More men are affected, they are more willing to take risks."

The main reasons: Divorce, accident and death
He cites divorce, accidents and death as the main reasons, followed by unemployment, high interest rates and inflation. In addition, there is often ignorance of the law and the economy as well as a lack of financial planning. Niederreiter: "It is reasonable to assume that, since the unemployment figures are actually good, the wave of inflation is playing a role."

Hallein entrepreneur: "Bankruptcy became unavoidable."
 A few days ago, a Hallein entrepreneur was hit. The retailer wishes to remain anonymous. He explains: "In 2019, I invested another 160,000 euros in renovating the business. Then came Corona. As a food retailer, I was allowed to stay open and didn't receive any state aid. But people were all shopping in the supermarket."

He changed the strategy: delivery service, corporate customers, catering - the business recovered after the pandemic. Then came the staff crisis: he worked 14 to 15 hours a day in the store himself. He describes the situation as "physically and mentally extremely stressful".

A few weeks ago, he suffered a leisure accident - months of sick leave. The business remains closed. The costs continue. "At some point, you have to realize that it's not going to work out." As with many similar fates, bankruptcy became unavoidable.