When will this debacle stop?

Simplon (insolvency, Austria) at the end of September, WATT (bankruptcy, Netherlands) at the beginning of September, Timyo (bankruptcy, Netherlands), Fuell (bankruptcy, France-USA) in October, Stella (bankruptcy, Germany) mid-November, Smafo, (insolvency, Germany) in December, Amslod (bankruptcy, Netherlands) at the end of December, Cargoroo (bankruptcy, Netherlands) at the end of 2024, or even Bayck (bankruptcy, Netherlands) in early January 2025.

The list of companies in difficulty in the bicycle sector – some have fortunately been bought out to move forward – has continued to grow since this summer. We know: a deep crisis has hit the sector since 2022-2023, caused by a drop in demand, inflation and very costly overstocking.

Provisional insolvency application

Unfortunately, Bike EU we learn that the German company Sprick Holding GmbH and its subsidiary Sprick Cycle GmbH filed for provisional insolvency on December 27, 2024. In charge of the case, Axel Geese, a lawyer specializing in insolvency law, did not wish to comment on the case.

Its role is now to secure the group’s assets, until the official opening of insolvency proceedings which would then lead to liquidation, or even a buyout. In any case, we learn that Sprick Holding GmbH was already suffering from a deficit of several million euros since the 2022-2023 financial year, the fault of sales problems.

A major factory under threat

While its headquarters in Gutersloh, Germany, serves to oversee sales, purchasing, services and finance, its production plant based in Swiebodzin, Poland, is an important industrial facility for certain brands, most of which originate from ‘Europe. This is for example the case of the Austrian Woom, specialized in children’s bicycles.

In 2022, for example, Sprick will account for around 50% of Woom’s European sales volume. It is therefore an important customer, which would logically have to relocate part of its production if the factory were to disappear in the event of bankruptcy and judicial liquidation. For the moment, the procedure is not at this stage.

The biggest problem remains the fate of the company’s 500 employees: even in the event of a takeover, the new owner would perhaps not necessarily intend to keep all of the teams. We now hope that a positive outcome will be found for the group.