Schieder, one of Europe’s largest furniture producers (employing 11,600 people at 40 plants across Europe), has gone bankrupt. Some 8,000 jobs are at stake in Poland. The primary cause of the company’s financial difficulties lay in the unexpected spike in timber prices as well as in the fact that labour costs in Poland turned out to be higher than anticipated. Schieder’s Polish operations comprise Bydgoskie Fabryki Mebli, ETAP, Mazurskie Meble Trading, Mazur Comfort, Mazur Look, FS Favorit Furniture, Mazur Direct, HF Helevita, Flair Polsnad, Top Sofa, Tapicernia Gniewkowo, IMS, and Nowa E.