The €50 million emergency aid package recently promised by the government to save Quelle has apparently done little to calm the companies that depend on their business. Print companies Schlott Gruppe and Print.Forum have claimed proprietary rights on catalogues already produced, forcing a third printer, Prinovis, to suspend production.
The new Quelle catalogue has been the subject of a political and economic tussle for weeks, with Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg finally agreeing that the state pay for the printing in the past week. But Bernd Rose, CEO of the Schlott Gruppe told news magazine Focus that the money had not yet been transferred.
A spokesman for the insolvency administrator Klaus Hubert Görg said that Quelle’s credit contracts with the banks were yet to be finalised. Quelle would probably only be able to pay “at the beginning or middle of next week,” he said.
According to a poll by broadcaster ZDF, a clear majority of Germans are now against the state rescue package for Quelle.
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