Closure of an Office Chair Company

When an office chair company goes bankrupt, office furniture such as office chairs is often retrieved by employees for items they purchased personally, or is bought at low prices by second-hand recyclers and then resold at high prices.

I. Employees Retrieve Office Chairs Purchased Personally If an office chair was purchased by an employee with personal funds, even if the company's account was used for reimbursement but the payment was not approved, the employee still has the right to retrieve it. For example, when Hanhai Visual Effects Company went bankrupt, core employee Xi Heng retrieved the Herman Miller Embody office chair he had purchased and customized for 28,000 yuan, with the invoice showing payment from his personal account, and he successfully retrieved it. This situation indicates that personal purchase documents (such as invoices) are the key basis for retrieving items. Even if the company was involved in the payment process, as long as reimbursement was not completed or the funds did not belong to the company, the employee can still claim ownership.

II. Second-Hand Office Furniture Recyclers Buy at Low Prices and Resell at High Prices After a company goes bankrupt, a large amount of office furniture is often bought in bulk by second-hand recyclers at extremely low prices and then resold at high profits through refurbishment or direct resale. Specific cases include:

1. Bankruptcy of a Cross-Border E-Commerce Team in Bao'an District, Shenzhen: Eleven employee chairs and other furniture were bought by a recycler for a package price of 1,800 yuan, while the original purchase cost was at least 42,000 yuan, with the recycling price being less than 4.3% of the original price.
2. Bankruptcy of an Online Education Company in Wangjing SOHO, Beijing: More than 300 Herman Miller Aeron ergonomic chairs were taken away by a scrap collector for less than 8,000 yuan. Each well-maintained second-hand Aeron chair has a market price of 3,500 to 4,000 yuan. This recycler sold each chair for 3,800 yuan, making a profit of 114,000 yuan just from the chairs, with a profit margin of over 13 times.
3. Seven Companies in the Pudong Education Park, Shanghai, Vacate Their Premises: The property management company packaged new office furniture worth at least 1.5 million yuan and sold it to a recycling boss at a scrap price of 18,000 yuan, with the recycling price being only 1.2% of the original price.
4. The Boss of a Beijing Internet Company Flees: Two hundred and sixty Haworth height-adjustable desks that were 90% new and had been used for nine months were bought by a recycler for 80 yuan each. Someone refurbished them and sold each for 3,800 yuan, making a profit of 930,000 yuan in a single deal, with a profit margin of 46.5 times.

**These cases show that recyclers buy office furniture from bankrupt companies at low prices and then resell it at high prices in the second-hand market by taking advantage of brand value, condition advantages, or refurbishment techniques, forming a chain of huge profits.