100 employees were injured
Bankruptcy: seven car dealerships are closing – only one salon is saved
Updated July 2, 2026 – 8:57 am.Reading time: 2 min.
Fiat logo (symbolic image): The car dealership chain is insolvent. (Source: FrankHoermann/SVEN SIMON, www.imago-images.de/imago)
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More than 200 potential buyers were contacted, but none were found in seven of the eight locations. The insolvent Autolöwen car dealership group is essentially ceasing operations.
Seven of the eight Autolöwen car dealerships have closed. About 100 employees will lose their jobs. Only the Aalen plant has been sold and will be retained, including about 30 jobs, as reported by Automobilwoche, among others.
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Autolöwen GmbH, based in Schwäbisch Hall, has been selling Peugeot, Citroën, Opel and Opel vehicles for over 30 years. Fiat and most recently the company employed about 180 people. About 50 of them have already left the company, having entered into agreements to terminate their contracts. The group filed for bankruptcy in April. The court opened proceedings on July 1 – bankruptcy trustee Markus Schuster from the law firm Schultze & Braun took over the management.
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The Widmann Group has acquired the company in Aalen. All 33 employees will retain their jobs, previous contacts and brand portfolio will be preserved. “The preservation of car dealerships and jobs is good news in this process,” insolvency manager Schuster said, according to the Schwäbische Post. As for the remaining seven locations in Schwäbisch Hall, Crailsheim, HeilbronnLudwigsburg and Eringen The search for a buyer remained unsuccessful.
Customers are buying fewer cars
Schuster said he reached out to more than 200 potential stakeholders, 19 of whom had in-depth discussions and nine of whom submitted concrete proposals. In Crailsheim and Schwäbisch Hall, possible solutions failed because landlords and stakeholders were unable to reach an agreement. In Öhringen, one interested party refused to participate, and no proposals were received for Heilbronn and Ludwigsburg. “Therefore, closure cannot be avoided for economic reasons,” Schuster explained, according to reports.
As a reason for the imbalance, Schuster cited, among other things, a pronounced reluctance to buy among private and commercial customers, which sometimes meant that cars had to be sold below the purchase price. In particular, income from electricity leasing became a problem for the company. In addition, personnel, energy and fuel costs have increased. The group’s sales have recently been in the double-digit million range.
The number of bankruptcies in the automobile trade is on the rise: According to Michael Ziegler, President of the Automotive Industry of Baden-Württemberg, the number of large bankruptcies in the automobile trade – in companies with sales of more than ten million euros – has tripled from eleven to 32, reports “Automobilwoche”.