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Cycle clothing brand Vulpine is "insolvent" and enters administration

Founder Nick Hussey breaks the news "with intense sadness" in email to investors...

London-based cycle clothing brand Vulpine has entered administration. The news was confirmed in an email send this afternoon by its founder, Nick Hussey, to investors in the business.

He wrote:

It is with intense sadness that I have to inform you that Vulpine is insolvent, and I have had to take the extremely difficult but essential decision to place the company I founded into administration, under UK law, hence my unusual formality.

Two Partners from RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP will be appointed administrators next week, after a special resolution was passed yesterday by ‘A Shareholders’, who are able to vote. Once appointed the Administrators will have full control of the company and I will no longer be able to make any decisions.

We have done all we can to finance the company. The late arrival of the majority of our Spring Summer 2017 stock put us in a more difficult cash position. Thus we sought to raise investment again through crowdfunding. But this did not gain the necessary momentum to complete, likely due to the very poor trading figures of the last financial year.

Thus we pulled out of the Crowdcube attempted raise and began contacting previously interested investors and potential buyers of Vulpine, plus a raft of new contacts.

Whilst there was strong recognition of the brand, and initial verbal interest, none have produced offers or ongoing due diligence, and communication has stopped. It is highly possible that, having seen our precarious financial position and the complications of doing a fast enough deal, they are waiting to pick the business up in administration instead, if any deal is to be done.

Vulpine’s brand and business structure remains relatively undamaged at this point, and any acquisition via administration would see the highest potential value to all stakeholders if conducted as quickly as possible.

The proposed Administrators plan is to try to sell the company’s assets, such as brand, goodwill, database & website to maximize realisations for the benefit of creditors and potentially shareholders.

You can contact Robert Young at RSM for advice on this process, or if you believe there may be an interested buyer: robert.young [at] rsmuk.comI cannot offer financial advice, and I encourage you to seek your own, but if you qualify for EIS status, you should be able to claim significant Loss Relief on top of your Tax Relief.I wish you all the very best.

Ride well.

More to follow.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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253 comments

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Blackhound | 7 years ago
1 like

Although disappointed they have folded two of the three items failed.  A pair of shorts were mended quickly and a jersey I never bothered to send back despite two different issues with the pockets.  Not sure if quality control was an issue for them but they tried to do something different.

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The _Kaner replied to Blackhound | 7 years ago
0 likes

Blackhound wrote:

Although disappointed they have folded two of the three items failed.  A pair of shorts were mended quickly and a jersey I never bothered to send back despite two different issues with the pockets.  Not sure if quality control was an issue for them but they tried to do something different.

Yes I had issues with a Hoy Fortress Jersey pockets. The bartack stitching was becoming loose and the material started striating at those points.

The suggestion was that I had overloaded the pockets.

I had worn the garment twice, for approx 5 hours in total. I sent them pics of what I always take with me in the pockets...a bit cheeky there as the pic showed all the items fitting easily into a Cervo Rosso Ibrido jersey...

But, all in it was approx 3-4 weeks before I was sent a replacement...but I had to do a lot of chasing.

Plus the 'sale fisaco' I mentioned earlier...missed out on some really cheap items, even though I had received confirmation that the order was placed, the stock wasn't available and it was again about 1 month to get all of that resolved and the remnants of that order delivered.

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
5 likes

Shame, but as opposed to Simon I think they were a mess. Baggy, boxy cuts, with generic looking base layers that you can find littered all over sites like Sports Pursuit. It's was very.. middling. I always checked in with their site though, I was always sort of wanting them to get it and take it all up a notch, because we're missing really nice brands in the UK. Everything's so safe, and beige and generic looking. Just. Please. Grow. A. Pair. Of. Testicles. and hire trendy designers and go for it. At least if they dropped their prices they could have sold more kit. Their pricing was sort of aspirational, but the kit was dull. Ummm? Even the logo was a 5 min job on photoshop. Christ. Circle with V in it. Guys? Did they do that through fiverr?

'Oh but we have some innovative materials and ideas'. Oh who cares. Sports market is saturated with that nonsense. It needs good design to differentiate. And that design doesn't mean the sort of thing that you'd feel comfortable wearing with your gran or playing soggy biscuit with your tweedy chums. 

Ahem. enlightened

Just sort of came out. 

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Simon E | 7 years ago
7 likes

That's a shame. I thought they stood out in the market and had a distinctive approach. I also liked Nick's attitude and the way he responsed in discussions on this website. I hope this won't be the last we see of him.

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Stef Marazzi | 7 years ago
2 likes

Wow. Their Hoy-Vulpine stuff was amazing recently. Then they stopped doing it to concentrate on smart cycling suit jacket-ey wear that cost a bomb. Shame.

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reippuert replied to Stef Marazzi | 7 years ago
0 likes

cyclesteffer wrote:

Wow. Their Hoy-Vulpine stuff was amazing recently. Then they stopped doing it to concentrate on smart cycling suit jacket-ey wear that cost a bomb. Shame.

exatctly - at least i go a completely new wardrode durring 2015/2016 from  their technical wear  range (Hoy Vulpine).

I have the original softshell jacket as well and love it. The 2017 collecton , couldent find a single thing i needed.

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S13SFC | 7 years ago
2 likes

Plenty of their gear going to be cheap of Sport Pursuit then.

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Redvee replied to S13SFC | 7 years ago
0 likes

S13SFC wrote:

Plenty of their gear going to be cheap of Sport Pursuit then.

 

Or Sports Direct.

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Dr_Lex replied to S13SFC | 7 years ago
0 likes

S13SFC wrote:

Plenty of their gear going to be cheap of Sport Pursuit then.

 

After reading this funding blog, I suspect you're right. 

Ripped my merino undershorts on wear #4, but Hoy shorts doing nicely 18 months on.

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Housecathst | 7 years ago
3 likes

Sad, but I wasn't impressed with quality of the one pair of shorts I bought from them, same price as rapha but disintegrated in a couple of months. 

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The _Kaner | 7 years ago
4 likes

I think (my opinion, based on experience) that their sale (when the 'system' overload occurred and the stock levels were not reflected correctly) - leading to over sold stock, hurt them quite badly.

Also the low headcount of staff led to many poor after sales issues. The length of time taken to reply to emails, plus the slap dash customer care - even though the end result was satisfactory- for me, was just too long.

It meant that I held off buying more products fromthem directly.

In fact - in my favour - I picked up some more Hoy Vulpine items from Sportpursuit for a better price and the dispatch was quicker...

It's a pity. I liked their road cycling gear, but not so much their urban outfits (based on extremely exorbitant prices and me having no need for any of the items they stocked)

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fat buddha | 7 years ago
4 likes

I did consider backing them via Crowdcube, but there was just something that just didn't sit right for me in that the product range was a bit "meh" and fine your Shoreditch bearded fixie warrior, but not the bigger market out there.  and at prices way beyond what mortals will pay.  hey ho - another one bites the dust.

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Prosper0 | 7 years ago
3 likes

Hardly surprising - always wondered how many barmy £80 tshirts and £350 jackets they managed to sell. Clearly not enough.

Shame though.

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