Helrom, a German company specialising in the rail transport of semi-trailers, has filed for preliminary insolvency proceedings. Their Director of Sales, Bruno Weissmann, said the cause behind this is “an unsuccessful financing round”. While this does not mean a legal bankruptcy, it does jeopardise the future development plans of the company and places a question mark over currently unprofitable routes.
Weissmann explained that the company is “discontinuing routes that are not economically sustainable”. Which routes these will be has not yet been specified. Now the keyword is stability, as Helrom’s growth plans will be paused for the next three months. “This marks the beginning of a restructuring phase—not the end of our journey”, he added.
Polish route in doubt
The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Frankfurt, Germany. It develops special wagon technologies for the horizontal loading and transportation of non-cranable semi-trailers on rail wagons. These semi-trailers make up a significant portion of the units transported in Europe and have traditionally not been compatible with rail transport on the Continent. However, Helrom appeared to have cracked the problem of efficiency with their horizontal loading hardware, bespoke software, and a number of attractive routes across Europe.
In a land-based analogue of RoRo operations, unaccompanied trailers could be loaded onto trains for trunk transport. Critically, this required no specialist handling equipment. Helron had recently announced that it would launch a new connection between Germany and Poland in September. The service was expected to connect Katowice, in southwestern Poland, with Düsseldorf, in western Germany. It was hoped it would run six times per week in both directions, according to a statement shared by Helrom’s Director of Sales, Bruno Weissmann.
Continued trading
According to RailFreight.com, which first reported the financial story, it is not yet clear if the Poland-Germany route will still happen, given the preliminary insolvency proceedings. Company insiders believe there is a future for Helrom. Preliminary insolvency proceedings are generally the first legal step when a company is unable to secure further funding. It is not a full bankruptcy yet.
Operations may continue during this phase under court supervision, while the company seeks solutions such as restructuring, new investors, or debt refinancing. The company also operates connections from Germany to Hungary (on behalf of Audi), Austria and Italy. Just a few months ago, Helrom secured almost 33 million euros in funding to increase its fleet of special wagons.