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@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.
253 thoughts on “Cycle clothing brand Vulpine is “insolvent” and enters administration”
Hardly surprising – always
Hardly surprising – always wondered how many barmy £80 tshirts and £350 jackets they managed to sell. Clearly not enough.
Shame though.
I did consider backing them
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.
I think (my opinion, based on
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)
Sad, but I wasn’t impressed
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.
Plenty of their gear going to
Plenty of their gear going to be cheap of Sport Pursuit then.
S13SFC wrote:
Or Sports Direct.
S13SFC wrote:
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.
Wow. Their Hoy-Vulpine stuff
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.
cyclesteffer wrote:
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.
That’s a shame. I thought
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.
Shame, but as opposed to
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.
Just sort of came out.
Although disappointed they
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.
Blackhound wrote:
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.
I’m genuinely gutted by this.
I’m genuinely gutted by this. Vulpine became one of my favourite labels over the last few years. Not just on the bike but off it too. Their attention to design and the ideals they stuck too chimed with my own. I know they had their critics and things didn’t always go smoothly but seeing a small business that wanted to achieve something big go under makes me very sad. I hope it’s not the last we see of this talented team.
Love vulpine stuff, and I
Love vulpine stuff, and I found their customer service was utterly amazing. I can unfortunately understand how this has happened though as I have never bought something at full price, usually getting huge discounts in clearance sales or special offers. My wife is a non cyclist, but she loves her vulpine stuff as well. Pity.
Really sorry to hear of this
Really sorry to hear of this outcome. This is a small company that backed what they believed in and produced some great gear. I suspect they were just a few years too soon as mass market non vehicular cycling is (hopefully) not too far away and their kit is ideal for this.
Pricing was perhaps an issue as sales/discounts were regular and perhaps full price was too much
This is a massive shame.
This is a massive shame.
I own a few of their products, the ‘epic cotton’ rain trousers are genuinely one of my best ever purchases. I’ve used them constantly and they still work well and look good.
This is sad but not
This is sad but not unexpected. I was caught out in 2 sales shambles the second of which left me very angry. I have. A jacket and shorts from them . But I would t buy any more from them, not just because of the sales shambles but because they were constantly having sales suggesting they didn’t believe in the value of what they sold. I am sure they did and I hope they can rise from the ashes in some way but whatever they become will have to invest in after sales before I could be confident enough to buy from them in future.
That aside I do wonder if this will be the first of many cycling related business collapses. I get the impression the boutique cycling market is contracting. Loads of commuters in London but not many spending on Vulpine etc or perhaps too many suppliers?
A few too many companies over
A few too many companies over-estimating the ‘high end’ cycling market.
Agree with Leviathan, too
Agree with Leviathan, too many boutique brands.
drosco wrote:
Just to correct there. There are a select few successful boutique brands out there and myriad other average brands selling their products at inflated prices that will subsequently fail and go into administration.
Only bought one Jersey off
Only bought one Jersey off them but it was pants. Too thin for purpose and too skinny of sleeve. Wouldn’t have bought again. Always a shame to see a business fail though.
The cycling in brogues market
The cycling in brogues market is only so big.
Their website is still up and
Their website is still up and running – £50 for a tee shirt? Crazy.
Very sad to hear this. Nick
Very sad to hear this. Nick Hussey put heart and soul into this . Having said that, the quality of their stuff was very hit and miss, and after buying some of their stuff on their inception I stopped buying given the quality issues.
Sad. I feel for Nick and his
Sad. I feel for Nick and his team. No matter what you think about the kit itself they’ve been putting their heart and soul into the brand since its inception.
Bought one of their buff/
Bought one of their buff/ snood type things which is class and about the same price as a genuine buff. Might buy another if they are going cheap
As for the rest of the gear I have a beer gut that rules me out of most top end cycling gear fitting and I am a tight bastard, but it looked nice in the photos.
What a pity, let’s hope they
What a pity, let’s hope they sort it out. All the stuff I’ve had from them has been top notch, I always wear it when I’m out around town on my Guvnor. Tough business, they’ve produced some really good clothing,, let’s hope they get the help they need with the business side. Reading some of the pieces recently about Rapha, they’ve had some tight squeezes too, every business does. The difference between success and failure can just be a tiny amount of luck, good or bad, at just the right/wrong time
Good luck Vulpiners, you deserve it
I’m not Shoreditch but I do
I’m not from Shoreditch but I do have a beard and I cycle. A lot. I paid £50 for one of their merino t-shirts about 4 years ago. I have never had it off my back, including cycle touring in France and Spain, and it is still in as good condition as when I bought it. They even darned it free of charge. I have another coupe of items, too, and the quality is outstanding. £50 is exensive for a t-shirt but it’s all relative, I’d rather pay for a quality item, that lasts, than keep buy cheap crap, that doesn’t.
I can’t belive that I am genuinely shocked about this, I follow Vulpine and Nick Hussey on Twitter and he/they are a refreshing change and something a bit different. A shame.
Polite wrote:
I don’t think those two sentences can possibly go together
keirik wrote:
A tiny hole in it caused by getting it caught on something, it’s made of merino wool not metal. It has nothing to do with the quality of the t-shirt.
Polite wrote:
You’re not a hipster, you’re a dirty hippy! Buy another you tightwad! 😉
yep agreed it will be a shame
yep agreed it will be a shame if they go completely,as theyve always displayed a passion and willingness to support cycling and especially promote womens cycling equally, I certainly never had any issues with the quality of the kit I bought, though Id freely hold my hand up and admit Ive not bought anything of theirs for a few years now, partly due to the cost & partly theres been nothing in their range thats really grabbed me design wise.
I feel sorry that a company
I feel sorry that a company with commuter oriented cyclewear has shut down. But even more sorry that there aren’t many if any commuter cyclewear companies with reasonably priced products. Yes the lycra lovers have sports direct, aldi etc but if you want a low cost waterproof breathable jacket that will not reveal your taste in boxers and not look like a MAMiL, you are out of options.
Guess they just didn’t turn
Guess they just didn’t turn over goods fast enough, so they had this sale with about 2/3 off. Made me wondering who would buy at full price. Value was ok while on sale otherwise – 105 quid for a jersey with nothing special – apart from the Hoy name?
I know Nick was a regular
I know Nick was a regular reader of Road.cc so I wish him the best of luck with whatever he chooses to do in the future.
Think it’s a real shame they
Think it’s a real shame they’ve gone under – and from the info in the article – looks like the vultures are circling. I have lots of their kit – been buying it since the start (near enough) – and I really love it … although I always bought it in their sales as the standard pricing was high. I remember when I got my first jacket and showed it to “the purchasing committe chairwoman” she approved and said “it doesnt look like a cycling jacket, it looks really good“. I liked Vulpine’s overall commitment to cycling which I do think was genuine. The designs vary, some are really excellent IMHO ( I’m not in Shoreditch – but in the North of Scotland and my commute is a 46 mile round trip on A roads – and for rain, the Vulpine jacket is my jacket of choice). Had some minor quality issues and had one pocket stitching come loose and a hole come through on an Alpine Jersey ( and I got the “overloaded pockets” line – and no it was never overloaded ). Also had dissapointing buying experience when I bought a cycling jacket online for my wife (who was delighted) … then a couple of days later I got told they didn’t have it and that was that (so why take the order ?) so the Mrs wasn’t well pleased 🙁 I did check out the crowdfunding thing last year but didn’t like the content of the prospectus as it seemed to focus on an exit strategy of selling the brand to Adidas or someone like that and going just for high end market. Was surprised to get that “Vulpine advert mag” a few weeks back – although it was nice enough I really thought what a waste of money this is … this is a tiny marketplace … I also thought it strange that it tried to push their own high-end custom-ish bikes. Anyway, real shame in my opinion. I wish Nick and all at Vulpine the very best for the future.
Shame. Decent guys and doing
Shame. Decent guys and doing something genuinely different (and really good quality).
Guess being the interesting outsider is always a risk though.
I’ve only bought one Vulpine
I’ve only bought one Vulpine item (a cap) cos most of it is too expensive for my pay packet, but I had to arrange to replace it for a different size (my mistake, not theirs). Their customer service was absolutely great and totally beyond reproach. I guess great customer service just doesn’t pay the bills…
I’m very sorry to hear this.
I’m very sorry to hear this. An interesting company, which Nick has put his heart and soul into. I have some of their merino stuff and a couple of jackets, their stuff is good and customer service excellent.
In the end I’m a Roady, so I don’t really need urban cycling stuff, which is maybe a niche to far. Their is plenty of disposable income for Roady gear, and maybe Hoy-Vulpne wasn’t compelling enough against the likes of Castelli.
Still a great shame, and I wish them all the very best
Yes, certainly a shame when
Yes, certainly a shame when companies like this go under. I had a few items (merino hoodie, primaloft gilet, winter cap (matches the gilet) and softshell gloves). All are great quality, all were too expensive at RRP so all were bought in theIreland numerous sales at massive discounts. I do like the fact that all the items are truly dual purpose (i. e. Work very well on and off the bike). Have been eyeing up a Deluge waterproof jacket in Dutch orange for ages, again due to looking good for multi-use, so may now end getting one in a future fire sale. It will be a real shame if their designs totally disappear as for the most part they worked well….very sad.
Sadly said before but:
Sadly said before but:
I ordered a load of stuff in their last sale – was very keen on getting a nice smart jacket, and loved the look of the merino jerseys. Also ordered some capri trousers and shorts.
The capris and shorts are a perfect fit, and great for cycling to the pub and still looking great. I was wearing the padded merino boy shorts under my jeans while out on the piss last night. I’m after the trousers too.
However, nothing for my upper body fitted – there was no room for boobage at all. Female friends reported the same. It’s sad, as the jacket and jerseys were lovely. This appears to have been the case for years and years – I tried on a friend’s jacket about five years ago when I was so skinny, I was flat chested, and it still had no boob room. Other female friends had the same experience.
If they had sorted out the boob issue years ago, perhaps it would have made a difference?
They were great about the returns though.
Shame, liked a lot of their
Shame, liked a lot of their products and my Hoy winter (long) tights are great. I do try and do the ‘bike to office’ clothes approach but, to be honest, I don’t see many others doing it so the market is pretty small.
I aways checked Vulpine stuff
I aways checked Vulpine stuff out and checked out Rapha stuff at the same time.
Let’s just say I have over 20 items of Rapha clothing and zero Vulpine.
I wanted more daring road stuff and not commuter stuff. The Hoy Vulpine gear looked OK but it lacked something.
Rapha and Morvelo for me moving forward.
I’m one of the unfortunate
I’m one of the unfortunate 588 investors in Vulpine.
I would vent my spleen on the investors forum but Nick Hussey had that shut down on Friday afternoon so I’ve got to do it here – I hope he’s reading.
He may have created nice gear and have been passionate about his product, and cycling in general , but I feel that he’s not been quite as honest and transparent as he would have us believe.
He’s taken less than two years to squander the money I gave him during the first round of crowd funding and he then had the nerve to come to me again to ask for more with exactly the same pitch as the first time – Adidas and Nike are knocking at the door, in five years time we’ll all be cycle clothing fat cats. Whilst telling me this he knows that the company is going down the tubes.
Just a couple of months ago the company celebrated it’s fifth birthday and Mr and Mrs Hussey rewarded themselves with two bespoke bicycles, some of which was paid for by me and the other 587. Can I have yours Nick? It won’t cover my lost investment but it would make me feel better.
Rant over.
Well said. Who in their right
Well said. Who in their right mind would go and buy 2 new expensive bikes knowing the precarious position of their business.
Sorry to hear you lost your money on this.
I must also state that road.cc has always given them a disproportionate amount of coverage compared to other new cycling businesses out there. Always seemed a little strange to me.
Well said. Who in their right
Well said. Who in their right mind would go and buy 2 new expensive bikes knowing the precarious position of their business.
Sorry to hear you lost your money on this.
I must also state that road.cc has always given them a disproportionate amount of coverage compared to other new cycling businesses out there. Always seemed a little strange to me.
Well said…..
Well said…..
I too invested a fair bit of cash into this project & truly believed in the brand
I feel a bit mis led if im honest as not at any given time were there any warnings of this & indeed when the 2nd approach for funding came i ‘almost’ invested further on the basis of the ‘good news’ that was coming from the camp on the side of successful sales etc etc
If i had invested further i would be mighty pee’d off right now
As it is i knew the risks & lost, but given the news we as shareholders were being given this doesnt sound right
I feel like ive walked up to someone, given them a load of cash & a year later theyve said sorry fella, tough luck it didnt work out when all the while we were hearing the exact opposite….
Talked to a newish staff
Talked to a newish staff member today. The small business worked well and when they got the cash and doubled the workforce, ordered the stock the numbers were never correct. Nick stepped down from day to day at this point also
There is a load of stock ready with no cash to pay the final installment.
Sad for a cool company
582 people just lost their
582 people just lost their holiday fund thru mismanagement
https://www.crowdcube.com/investment/vulpine-19885
http:/
http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=+vulpine
the truth is in their 2016 accounts. prokected loss of 224 k.
FILED losses of 770k on a turnover of 1.3 million.
How is that even possible!
Freddy56 wrote:
Does the £1m investment feature in the numbers? So they raise a mil and lose £800k so that’s almost £2m lost?
That is incompetence on an epic scale or worse. Can’t feel much sympathy for the founders I’m afraid.
Love to hear from more of the investors while it’s still newsworthy.
FG
I’m another investor, who’s
I’m another investor, who’s lost a couple of hundred quid. Only invested as I always felt that it was worth a small gamble on a company and products that I really liked. Aways felt Nick was really passionate about the company, product and cycling in general, so was happy with any risk.
To be honest I feel more sorry for Nick than I do for myself. I haven’t lost much and I really like the Vulpne kit I’ve got. More sorry that I maybe won’t be able to buy any more in the future.
Not sure whether I’ve been conned, but in the recent video featuring Nick and his Wife, they stated that she had given up her job in the television industry to help run part of the company so I kind of thought that the business was set for growth this year. In any small business cashflow is always a major issue and it looks like this was partly the case hear. The problems last year burnt a lot of the investors cash. The wholesale route they took was clearly a major mistake and meant the money they had couldn’t be used where it was really needed, in creating new markets abroad and paying for new season stock without being on the brink of running out of money.
I’ve also just bought a Harrington Jacket in two sizes, the small one I want to keep -The other, it looks like I’m stuck with, as now the companies in Administration I don’t think they will except any returns. Maybe I’ll keep it for when I get old and fat.
andybed wrote:
I think this is right, but consumer credit is not really my field:
– Vulpine’s website offers automatic “no fault” returns: “When we receive the parcel we’ll either credit you in full for the amount you originally paid, or send you a replacement at our expense, whichever you prefer. Just note it on the form.”
That will thus be a term of the contract.
A failure to accept a return would be a breach of contract.
If you paid using a credit card, then, pursuant to s75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 your credit card company will be jointly and severally liable (assuming item cost more than £100- which Harrington would do if not in sale):
“If the debtor under a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement falling within section 12(b) or (c) has, in relation to a transaction financed by the agreement, any claim against the supplier in respect of a misrepresentation or breach of contract, he shall have a like claim against the creditor, who, with the supplier, shall accordingly be jointly and severally liable to the debtor.”
So, if you don’t want the item and Vulpine refuse a refund, certainly take it up with the Credit Card company.
I lost money too and I don’t
I lost money too and I don’t share many of these kind words. Business is first and foremost about controlling your costs and making a profit; it’s not meaningless word porridge about ‘joy’ and ‘highly technical.’ When that absurd ‘magazine’ dropped through my door my blood ran cold. Here was a company without two cents to its name wasting money on some fluff extolling the virtues of a bike he bought for his wife. Give me strength. Luckily I can afford to lose the money I ‘invested’ – I hope others in the same boat can afford to do the same. It’s taught me one hard lesson though – I won’t be ‘investing’ through crowd funding again. I bought a few items and I liked them but jeans for £160? Come on! The trouble with a ‘life-style’ brand is that his life-style is funded with other people’s money.
Pretty low post counts for
Pretty low post counts for the people singing this guy’s praises. Hmmm…
Personally I’ve admiration for getting the thing off the ground but clearly the last business moves seem shady and lacking in morals.
I’ve got a good bit of
I’ve got a good bit of Vulpine stuff. Jerseys, jackets (2), t-shirts and (casual, not bib) shorts. I was into Vulpine cause of wool. I don’t like wearing petroleum – unsustainable. Vulpine were one of the few still making woolen jerseys.
The jerseys were mostly good. Unusual, but nice cut – though fairly short sleeves. The pockets were a bit unusual in shape. Small, but well stitched. Helps discourage overloading that inevitably will tear wool apart I guess.
I guess I’ll be going to https://cimacoppi.cc/ for jerseys from now on. More traditional cut. Heavier grade of wool in the jersey I have. Which I guess is sturdier, but you do feel it a bit more.
The Vulpine wool t-shirt is lovely, and I regularly wear it. The epic cotton cycling rain jacket I bought had some quality issues, but I bought it in a sample sale – they fixed it. Was good for heavier rain commutes, providing a bit of a barrier against the rain while still being a bit breathable – not completely waterproof, but that’s the trade-off with breathability one has to make.
The epic cotton Harrington jacket is lovely and my favourite casual jacket.
The casual shorts, with diamond gusset for casual cycling, are also nice and a staple in warmer weather. Though, they are a tight fit on my legs. Luckily, they have some lycra for stretchiness.
I really liked Vulpine, but I have to say they seemed to be spreading themselves thin. They had this huge selection of things, a lot of which wasn’t relevant to me, or else eye-wateringly expensive. You couldn’t rely on them for staples either, e.g. wool wears fairly quickly (polyester physically lasts, but OTOH gets dreadful perma-stink within a few rides for me). I could never rely on Vulpine to have short-sleeve jerseys in stock though. Bit hit and miss (which is how I ended up discovering Cima Coppi).
Also, the regular clearance/sample sales undermined their RRP. Nearly all the stuff I bought – the jackets particularly – was in sample sales. I did buy some stuff at higher prices in years past, but the last while I knew to just wait for the next sale.
I’m very sad for the Vulpine crew. They must be gutted. Though, I note the questions being asked by some others in comments.
Ah well, Cima Coppi it is then. (And, to be fair, they seem much more focused).
It’s a shame to see a British
It’s a shame to see a British business go down the pan.
The gear was not my cup of tea, but I totally brought into Nick, his social marketing and use of media contacts has been consistantly excellent throughout the life of the business.
I feel sorry for the recent crowdfunder backers, that’s got to sting! Think you’re buying into someones heart and soul to help them grow, only to find out that it was precarious situation and that you’ve just given them a bucket to bail out water with.
Fixie, do please continue to
Fixie, do please continue to keep us updated on this , many thanks!
@Fixie Girl
@Fixie Girl
Hi there,
In case you’re wondering where some of your comments on this story have gone – we’ve deleted them to save you from the real risk of being sued for slander.
Not sure how it works over there in Portland but over here if you call someone a crook you generally need to be able to back the assertion up with something more than your “Spidey Sense”.
As for the rumours circulating in Portland – we’ve asked around and they would appear to have no basis in fact.
At least one member of the road.cc team invested money in Vulpine, we’ve been reviewing their kit since they launched, and from time to time they’ve advertised on the site – generally we like their stuff.
Our hope is that the company will emerge from administration in some form, ideally with all or most of its workforce intact.
Don’t know how likely that is to happen, but I do know that personal abuse and unfounded rumours from someone who seems to be neither a Vulpine customer, investor or employee is unlikely to do much to help that positive outcome become a reality – the personal abuse bit also breaks our site T&Cs.
Tony,
road.cc editor
Tony Farrelly wrote:
Tony – I think you will find that my comments are 100% founded and in no way abusive. If what we’ve seen here in the US, via official channels in 2016 and today, were made public…
Perhaps Nick would like to defend himself, perhaps respond on Twitter?
I feel for the investors and the employees, I really do. It could so easily have been me and I am sure it has effected many of your readers…
Perthaps you should do some digging yourself as this will stand as a cautionary tale for both the cycling industry and unregulated crowdfunding in general.
FG
Seems a shame to let all that
Seems a shame to let all that research go to waste though
If your comments are “100%
If your comments are “100% founded” back them up with some proof.
Until then…
Tony Farrelly wrote:
I would but I am under NDA until the 15th.
We’ve been going through all their accts today with a view to purchasing the business.
Its been audited down to the furniture, the fridge, tents, clothing rails a couple of broken bikes and a turbo trainer.
If your guy was an investor/shareholder in the US he can ask for these docs. Is it the same in the UK?
Until Monday…
Fixie Girl wrote:
i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.
rjfrussell wrote:
We were serious enough to request the documentation from the Administrators but won’t be going forward. We are still under NDA however.
The current management have come in for plenty of worse criticism from
http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpine-crashes-out.html?m=1
They called this back in 2015. If the cycling trade press/crowdcube did their due diligence then Vulpine would likely still be a small thriving business and 588 potential investors would not have lost £1m.
Fixie Girl wrote:
i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.
— rjfrussell We were serious enough to request the documentation from the Administrators but won’t be going forward. We are still under NDA however. The current management have come in for plenty of worse criticism from http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpine-crashes-out.html?m=1 They called this back in 2015. If the cycling trade press/crowdcube did their due diligence then Vulpine would likely still be a small thriving business and 588 potential investors would not have lost £1m.— Fixie Girl
Sheesh, but those blog entries are pretty scathing. Are they accurate?
brooksby wrote:
Yes, very.
brooksby wrote:
Yes, very.
Fixie Girl wrote:
i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.
— brooksby We were serious enough to request the documentation from the Administrators but won’t be going forward. We are still under NDA however. The current management have come in for plenty of worse criticism from http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpine-crashes-out.html?m=1 They called this back in 2015. If the cycling trade press/crowdcube did their due diligence then Vulpine would likely still be a small thriving business and 588 potential investors would not have lost £1m.— Fixie Girl
Sheesh, but those blog entries are pretty scathing. Are they accurate?
— rjfrussell Yes, very.— Fixie Girl
Wow! They spent £10K on 2 bikes for personal use (out of investors’ money) when they knew the business was struggling? Any sympathy I might have had has completely vanished.
I’ve made a note to get some
I’ve made a note to get some popcorn in…
Tony Farrelly wrote:
It’s a horror. Nightmare on Filament Walk part 1..
Tony Farrelly wrote:
Did you get the popcorn in Tony? I got beaten to the scoop..
Catch you later… I need my beauty sleep!
This thread’s in for a hell
This thread’s in for a hell of a bumping on Monday.
fixie girl,
fixie girl,
Did you come across Mr and Mrs Hussey’s newly acquired bespoke bikes during the audit?
The blog about them on the Vulpine website (now removed) insinuated that the company had purchased them. I’ve still got my eye on Nick’s – at a fire sale price.
rusholme ruffian wrote:
They dont appear in the fixed assets.. That only lists 2 display bikes at a cost of £5K that arent rideable?!
The accts have a lot of undocumented misc costs that could easily cover the cost of the other bikes.
is this story about to be
is this story about to be politely swept under the carpet by the cycling “press” ?
probably..
About time this place had a
About time this place had a bit of drama
From nick husseys latest
From nick husseys latest failed crowd funding blurb on this site…
“I’m crazy ambitious, but always the ‘right’ way. A way I can always be proud of what we achieve. Always look back knowing we did our best, and did it as the good guys.”
Really !!!!
gbzpto wrote:
Worth looking at the recent posts here to understand what “good guys” means…
http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpine-crashes-out.html?m=1
Does anyone still have a copy
Does anyone still have a copy of the “magazine” they recently sent out? I was a bit baffled by it when a paper copy came in the door a while ago – “Why are they making a magazine??”. Unfortunately I only had a quick glance at it before the wife threw it in the recycling. I’d love to have a read of it now, in light of this.
Paul J wrote:
Baffling indeed, especially with a mailing list of 40,000!
I am speechless, I want to cry and it wasnt even my money…
the bikes in question can be
the bikes in question can be viewed here;
also the mag,
https://www.vulpine.cc/uk/vulpine-is-five
longhaul.cc wrote:
Sadly someone beat me to my reveal on Monday..
http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/vulpine-illustrates-worst-of-all-things.html
longhaul.cc wrote:
That link would’ve made me want to vomit BEFORE I’d known about the insolvency. What is it with cycling that attracts such pseud wankers…
Hmmm. Feel sorry for
Hmmm. Feel sorry for investors that thought this was a going concern.
Crowd funding is a mixed bag. If you can afford conventional credit and investment then that is what you do.
Crowd funding helps a start up, but if they’re ‘established’ then you have to wonder why, after 3-4 years of being in business they’re pursuing this unconventional route.
Nick’s passion did verge onto obsession and went a little beyond. I remember how passionate he got about women’s cycling. But he was a bit devil be damned about the cost. Not the ideal attitude for someone managing your investment.
‘More to follow’ were the
‘More to follow’ were the last words of the original article that spawned this thread – how right that was.
The more I read on here the more I feel that Nick Hussey has stolen my money to fund his own lifestyle.
Why don’t you come on here Nick and try and explain to me why I shouldn’t be feeling this way. Failing that, you’ve got all of the investor’s contact details so why not drop us a line.
Wow, taking over £9k per
Wow, taking over £9k per month in the last 4 months?
oh god;
oh god;
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/tribe-takes-to-crowdcube-for-funding/021249
longhaul.cc wrote:
????
longhaul.cc wrote:
Never heard of them until now. Wanky nonsense. Trying to take supplements into the subscription market.
https://wearetribe.co
Good luck sinking a mill into that.
“Wanky nonsense” on a crowd
“Wanky nonsense” on a crowd funding site – who’d have thunked it?
Well I can’t see anyone
Well I can’t see anyone wanting to lend that guy a fiver again.
Vision – maybe
Morals – no
What is the 200k ‘charge’ for
What is the 200k ‘charge’ for or is it still unknown?
unconstituted wrote:
It was a loan from Plan Finance owned by Ryan Georgiades.. it was made in March 2015 for working capital. So it was odd to us that a further £500k was being raised 6 months later.
Now I have to get some sleep.
Fixie Girl wrote:
What is the 200k ‘charge’ for or is it still unknown?
— Fixie Girl It was a loan from Plan Finance owned by Ryan Georgiades.. it was made in March 2015 for working capital. So it was odd to us that a further £500k was being raised 6 months later. Now I have to get some sleep.— unconstituted
Director doesn’t equal Owner, but I’m sure you know that FG.
I’d assumed that Georgiades was some sort of hedge fundy type manager, and a director of Vulpine to look after investments for *his* clients (I notice all his other companies are investment/insurance companies)
brooksby wrote:
It does @brooksby when the staff comprises of Ryan and his brother Scott who are sole shareholders.
Fixie Girl wrote:
Sorry, FG, didn’t look at their companies that closely. I guess it still raises issues about making some decision wearing a ‘director’ hat and others wearing a ‘shareholder’ hat, though.
On the original Vulpine issue, I note that Mr Hussey said that a decision of the ‘A’ shareholders was made to put the company into administration… I appreciate that they are non-voting, but isn’t best practice to get ‘class consent’ from the ‘B’/investor shareholders where something like this is going to seriously detrimentally affect them?
Maybe Mr H was worried that they’d reject administration and go for full-on liquidation in an attempt to get their money back… Hypothetically, of course (sorry, road.cc sysadmins 
).
Fixie Girl wrote:
What is the 200k ‘charge’ for or is it still unknown?
— Fixie Girl It was a loan from Plan Finance owned by Ryan Georgiades.. it was made in March 2015 for working capital. So it was odd to us that a further £500k was being raised 6 months later. Now I have to get some sleep.— unconstituted
From my limited knowledge I understand that creditors (i.e. When people loan a company money) get their money back first before investors etc. So it is not untoward that this was paid back while the company was being wound up.
How did they manage to get
How did they manage to get their money out right before insolvency? The other registered charges (HSBC) are still listed ‘outstanding’?
Paul J wrote:
Two guess ;o)
Fixie Girl wrote:
Two guess ;o) — Paul J
I once worked in investigation of pyramid schemes, advance fee fraud, etc.
One of the more amusing cases was of a disgruntled gangster ‘sending the boys around’ to the suspects’ house to get his money back. It worked – the couple knew they would come to a sticky end if they didn’t produce the cash, sharpish. He was the only one to get his money back too.
There’s an interesting update
There’s an interesting update here… From someone close I would guess…
http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/vulpine-illustrates-worst-of-all-things.html
This whole episode just stinks. I’d say more but fear the wrath of the sys admins at road.cc
Does anyone have news from Nick, Vulpine or the Administrator that they can share? Or is still ziplocked until the 15th?
My colleagues in M&A do say I can be like a b*tch with a bone at times.. 😉
::Edit One of my colleagues just pointed out that Vulpine’s date of Incorporation should have been a giveaway.. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07211640
Wow. A big thank you to fixie
Wow. A big thank you to fixie girl for persisting against those who might not want to hear the harsh reality.
None of this reads well and personally as one of their customers, I am sad to see this as the conclusion. That said, I had my doubts as there was persistent discounting of stock over the years and as I never paid full price for their gear and that was one of the reasons why I ruled out getting involved with the crowd funding.
Vulpine for me, a cracking concept, occasionally with a brilliant product but strategic over reach was the end of it.
Oh, so his wife was also
Oh, so his wife was also getting a salary? So in addition to the £9k per month that Nick was paying himself over the last 4 months, his wife also was being paid?
This, well after the rest of the board had decided the game was up and the best thing to do for shareholders and others was to liquidate?
Wow…
Paul J wrote:
I thought only politicians could get away with doing that kind of thing?
Fixie Girl for Road.cc
Fixie Girl for Road.cc president!
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
President? I thought we were an anarchosyndicalist commune.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
I think that the title of president is rather losing its cachet, nowadays…
This is a sad investment
This is a sad investment story, especially when most of the investors are individuals who invested to support cycling rather than anything else. Everything I am writing is based on facts and can be verified with public records and I am happy to correct anything proven to be inaccurate.
Nick Hussey:
Nick has a lot to answer for and in what he wrote in investor updates and Crowdcube pitches is clearly detached from reality. Why and how he misled investors and public, it doesn’t matter, I feel sorry for the investors, his employees and suppliers. His many absurd mistakes include:
1) Telling investors everything was rosy when it wasn’t
2) Spectacularly missing his targets and promises in almost every way
3) Engaging in nepotism by hiring his wife as GM
4) The true status and length of the Hoy brand was not revealed until very late in the day
5) To try and raise money at an absurd valuation of £6.5m when the company was almost bankrupt
6) Getting rid of everyone that opposed him on the board and engaging in autocratic governance
7) Engaging in vanity projects such as the magazine to 40,000 people and the custom bikes for him and his wife when the company was about to go into administration
Crowdcube:
They have a lot to answer for and were very irresponsible:
1) The most recent fundraising was due to complete in around the time the company filed for administration. Vulpine was in dire straits financially, days from administration and they wanted ordinary punters to invest at a valuation of £6.5m
2) In the pitch presentation they allowed Vulpine to describe the loan/charge from HSBC as “vote of confidence”, “an extremely significant financial health certificate” amongst other things
3) The main pitch had limited financial data especially around liabilities and current cash position which is critical
4) The pitch said in the section why you should invest in Vulpine “Vulpine is on the cusp of achieving break-even after an extremely successful year…” when the reality is they were on the cusp of administration
The previous pitch in 2015
1) No mention of the Hoy brand being finite and a lot of punters really went for Vulpine because Hoy is a real brand name! Very material information!
2) The company went on Crowdcube halfway through it’s financial year so knew where the numbers were going to be. They forecasted more than £800,000 of gross profit but ended up with only £170,000 for the whole year…so at the time Vulpine went to market (halfway through the year) they made at most £170,000 of gross profit and had little to no chance of achieving anything like the forecast
I can point out a lot more but think the point is made. My advice on Crowdcube is, DON’T TOUCH WITH A BARGE POLE…plenty of better places to put your money and if good causes is your purpose there are plenty of those as well.
I hope no one lost money they can’t afford, I would encourage everyone to write to the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman.
What are the facts on the
What are the facts on the resignation of the board members
Road.cc seems to have published every press release / positive news storey about this company from day 1. Nothing was ever reported on this.
gbzpto wrote:
This is a sad investment story, especially when most of the investors are individuals who invested to support cycling rather than anything else. Everything I am writing is based on facts and can be verified with public records and I am happy to correct anything proven to be inaccurate.
Nick Hussey:
Nick has a lot to answer for and in what he wrote in investor updates and Crowdcube pitches is clearly detached from reality. Why and how he mislead investors and public, it doesn’t matter, I feel sorry for the investors, his employees and suppliers. His many absurd mistakes include:
1) Telling investors everything was rosy when it wasn’t
2) Spectacularly missing his targets and promises in almost every way
3) Engaging in nepotism by hiring his wife as GM
4) The true status and length of the Hoy brand was not revealed until very late in the day
5) To try and raise money at an absurd valuation of £6.5m when the company was almost bankrupt
6) Getting rid of everyone that opposed him on the board and engaging in autocratic governance
7) Engaging in vanity projects such as the magazine to 40,000 people and the custom bikes for him and his wife when the company was about to go into administration
Crowdcube:
They have a lot to answer for and were very irresponsible:
1) The most recent fundraising was due to complete in around the time the company filed for administration. Vulpine was in dire straits financially, days from administration and they wanted ordinary punters to invest at a valuation of £6.5m
2) In the pitch presentation they allowed Vulpine to describe the loan/charge from HSBC as “vote of confidence”, “an extremely significant financial health certificate” amongst other things
3) The main pitch had limited financial data especially around liabilities and current cash position which is critical
4) The pitch said in the section why you should invest in Vulpine “Vulpine is on the cusp of achieving break-even after an extremely successful year…” when the reality is they were on the cusp of administration
The previous pitch in 2015
1) No mention of the Hoy brand being finite and a lot of punters really went for Vulpine because Hoy is a real brand name! Very material information!
2) The company went on Crowdcube halfway through it’s financial year so knew where the numbers were going to be. They forecasted more than £800,000 of gross profit but ended up with only £170,000 for the whole year…so at the time Vulpine went to market (halfway through the year) they made at most £170,000 of gross profit and had little to no chance of achieving anything like the forecast
I can point out a lot more but there is no point. My advice on Crowdcube is, DON’T TOUCH WITH BARGE POLE…plenty of better places to put your money and if good causes is your purpose there are plenty of those as well.
I hope no one lost money they can’t afford, I would encourage everyone to write to the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman.
— gbzpto— gva
The board resignations are mostly speculation which is what it is. I am hoping to administrators come up with a definitive answer. From what I heard it sounds like the board had a lot of disagreements with Nick who despite being a minority shareholder wrestled control…The resignations were done in sync and were a sign that they didn’t believe the company would survive.
The Georgiades brothers are cycling fans and legitimate businessmen who run a family insurance business as well as yellow jersey insurance. They invested early and funded the company via equity and loans…Theyve lost money here as well.
Ed Matthews is a well known investment banker and cycling fan, there were references on CrowdCube funding discussion board where nick referred to their disagreements and even insinuated a potential investor who has the same first name as his wife of smearing.
If the distribution of voting
If the distribution of voting shares given in the CS01 from Apr. ’17, applies back to May ’16, the total number of votes was: (5764788+860000+1000000) = 7624788. Hussey held 1000000+860000+90090 = 1950090 votes. Hussey held 25% of the votes, because – even though the /value/ of his “ordinary founder” and “ordinary subscriber” shares (1 million and 860,000) was quite low at 0.0001p relative to the other classes of shares (10p) each – his shares had disproportionate voting rights relative to their value.
Of the directors who resigned in ’16 with voting shares, Matthews, Beaumont, the Georgiades family, they held 1,545,100 votes versus Hussey’s 1,950,090. Though, one wonders if they could have gotten or tried to get some of the other major voting shareholders involved? E.g. of the former directors alone: Jenks with 1,080,000 (and prob. another 219,37 judging by names) or Simon Hulme (568570, maybe another 180180 if the other Hulme is related).
Be interesting to have a drink with one or two of them…
I have a story to tell.
I have a story to tell.
Imagine an exciting new entrant to the cycling clothing market. A company disproportionally feted by the cycling press who reaches it’s 3rd year in a dire cash flow position. It borrows £200k at the end of March 2015 which soon gets swallowed up so 6 months later they try for £500k from a popular crowd funding site.
The offering looked very attractive and days later raised just over £1m. Key to the success was the valuation of £6m, profitability and with a few months left of the financial year a relatively small loss of just over £200k.
With all that money on hand to drive their marketing team growth was surely guaranteed. Add to that the recent tie up with famous sportsman and an exclusive with a major UK retailer sales were in the bag.
Well fast forward 12 month and something just doesnt make sense.
1. In 2016 the marketing spend was 12% less in £ than 2015
2. Sales plummeted by over 30% yoy
3. Losses were almost £800k
4. Development costs were just £20k for a company priding itself on innovation.
One area of growth does stand out. A 100% rise in salaries to over £500k. Shared between 7 employees if one takes the 2016 prospectus figure. Oh and yes, remember this is a start up in its 4th year of trading.
Right I’m off for a ride to calm down.
There’s a movie in all this.
There’s a movie in all this.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Tony will bring the popcorn…
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Perhaps Nick can raise the capital he has a “gift”!
And where is Tony? I would argue that he has his proof from multiple sources now.
Fixie Girl wrote:
Hi Fixie Girl
I’m enjoying my Saturday. Eating popcorn
@Fixie girl “A company
@Fixie girl “A company disproportionally feted by the cycling press” this is what I always felt as well never could understand why. Road.cc were certainly taken in – and sounds like at least one of the staff had shares in the company. Probably makes sense now.
gbzpto wrote:
Yeah I remember an article probably a couple of years ago, to be fair I can’t remember whether it was on this site. There was a link to a range of clothes and another to an About page, with Hussey saying he’d been a cyclist for 20 years, ex-racer or something, definitely remember he said he was ‘Living The Dream’. That’s nice.
Nothing about what the company stood for, why the clothes were going to take over the world… Just struck me as another all-mouth-and-less (but very expensive) –
trousers, someone’s plaything and I never bought one item.
There’s no gloating there – I feel for everyone taken in by, seemingly, a chancer.
gbzpto wrote:
It doesn’t “sound like at least one of the staff had shares in the company” one of ’em did buy shares in the Crowd Cube offering, on the same basis as Kadinkski. I did mention that some way back.
Some of you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that road.cc is some sort of business news website doling out investment advice on cycling companies. We’re not.
Buying advice road.cc is qualified to give:
Buying a Vulpine jacket? – Yes
Buying Vulpine? – No
Our interest in Vulpine pretty much begins and ends with their products – which by and large were very good. When they were raising money on Crowd Cube we reported it – it was interesting, ditto Le Col – ditto Huez. I’d have to say that if you were making investment decisions on the basis of our news stories about Vulpine… well.
Tony Farrelly wrote:
It doesn’t “sound like at least one of the staff had shares in the company” one of ’em did buy shares in the Crowd Cube offering, on the same basis as Kadinkski. I did mention that some way back.
Some of you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that road.cc is some sort of business news website doling out investment advice on cycling companies. We’re not. Our interest in Vulpine pretty much begins and ends with their products – which by and large were very good. When they were raising money on Crowd Cube we reported it – it was interesting, ditto Le Col – ditto Huez. I’d have to say that if you were making investment decisions on the basis of our news stories about Vulpine… well. — gbzpto
Agree Tony. It is a case of caveat emptor.
Perhaps it would be useful lesson to carry a follow on piece when all the facts come out and the dust has settled. I hope that there won’t now be a negative impact on raising funds for the likes of Le Col and Huez.
Pete B
Tony Farrelly wrote:
It doesn’t “sound like at least one of the staff had shares in the company” one of ’em did buy shares in the Crowd Cube offering, on the same basis as Kadinkski. I did mention that some way back.
Some of you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that road.cc is some sort of business news website doling out investment advice on cycling companies. We’re not.
Buying advice road.cc is qualified to give:
Buying a Vulpine jacket? – Yes
Buying Vulpine? – No
Our interest in Vulpine pretty much begins and ends with their products – which by and large were very good. When they were raising money on Crowd Cube we reported it – it was interesting, ditto Le Col – ditto Huez. I’d have to say that if you were making investment decisions on the basis of our news stories about Vulpine… well. — gbzpto
Come on Tony, this is still a cycling story. There’s loads to go on:
Was Sir Chris Hoy an investor and what does he make of all this?
Why the Hoy/Vulpine partnership end? I was unaware that it had and now realise that the Vulpine cycle kit I have (bought in sales obvs) is actually all Hoy/Vulpine.
Were August Cycles ever paid for the 2 £10K vanity bikes? No sign of them on the A.C. website.
Where’s the money?
Well said
Well said
And what happened to the directors. ?.
zero_trooper wrote:
I re-read Road.cc’s previous coverage on Vulpine’s fundraising…it would be wrong to say Road.cc did anything wrong, made any recommendation or wrote anything they can’t back-up. However, if in this story Nick Hussey is Donald Trump…then Road.cc is Sean Spicer! The pieces had no objectivity, low on sound bites and full of propaganda!
Were August Cycles ever paid
[quote=zero_trooper]
“Were August Cycles ever paid for the 2 £10K vanity bikes? No sign of them on the A.C. website.”
Hello @zero_trooper! We (August Bicycles) we were paid, as we are a small set-up and simply couldn’t afford to take a chance on someone’s word when we hadn’t worked with them before. A real relief to us now, but sad times. They didn’t cost even nearly as much as that to the Vulpine guys and the sale prices were heavily inflated, not by us, but for effect, we assume. We were told that they’ve been seized as company assets now, but have just been informed that is also a fib. Such a sad saga.
RunRabbitRun]
Thanks for getting back to us RRR, glad that you have been paid for what would appear to have been a labour of love. I raised the question as from previous experience in a specialist, niche market (craft brewing), there are plenty of charlatans out there who are very tardy over paying for goods/services. Which as you have stated can have a real negative impact on small businesses.
Keep making beautiful bikes 🙂
get to know Nick;
get to know Nick;
http://cyclelove.cc/2012/12/at-home-with-vulpines-nick-hussey/
longhaul.cc wrote:
From the Vulpine blog…
“I BELIEVE IN COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY (BOO, HISS). EACH HUMAN’S ACTS CREATE RIPPLES, POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE. ALL OUR ACTIONS MATTER.”
I invested in the low 5
I invested in the low 5 figures, but I knew it was a gamble and was prepared to lose it – I assume it’s gone but its no big deal to me. Ony an idiot would have invested anything they couldn’t afford to lose in that proposition – it was a hot mess, but a beautiful idea.
Nick is a really engaging chap and is passionate about cycling – I invested in him rather than the numbers. I wish him well in the future. Nothing but love from me.
Kadinkski wrote:
So you have love for someone who:
1) Wrote to investors on 30th of March saying everything is great, asking for more money and then less than a month later putting company into administration?
2) Went to the public to ask for money with a very misleading premise and state of affairs?
3) Engage in nepotism, irresponsible spending (2 custom bikes as presents for him and his wife at cost of £10k+) and drawing down £36,000 in directors fees in the 4 month prior to administration?
Hey, I respect all opinions but a lot of people wouldn’t!
gva wrote:
I’m a little late to the party so forgive my confusion/bewilderment.
In the FY that Nick borrowed £1.2m and generated sales of £800k the business lost £800k?
How did that happen? who was in control, it’s epic incompetence and the very best. Won’t say what I actually think…
Anyone seen the full accounts?
Kadinkski wrote:
You invested in the low five figures but were prepared to lose it so no biggy? Can I have your job for a while? 😉
Kadinkski wrote:
I could understand the first part if the insolvency was down to outside issues, not internal suspect business practise.
second part makes Nick sound like a modern day Jim Jones.. Just dont drink the cool aid?!
There seems to be much more
There seems to be much more to this story than is at first obvious. I has no realised that the Hoy deal was over for example. A pity as the Hoy clothing was excellent. I said previously that I liked there stuff and have bought some of it, but I have to say that the decisions taken in the direction new clothing lines took seemed odd to me. Driving the prices up into niche areas and getting rid of decent items from previous ranges. The thermaloft jacket they did was brilliant, but removed from the product line for example. I guess it shows the pretentions of wanting to be a fashion brand with ever changing seasonal products, but even Rapha just twiddles with the colours and leaves the basic product as is. Yes launch one or two new things, but build up the sale of a mainstay of items… at the start I was interested in almost all of the products, but the end there were less that interested me. Maybe it was because I’d already bought the items that Did!
That’s Kadinkski – no thread
That’s Kadinkski – no thread is complete with his loadsamoney input, bless him.
First para – valid. Could’ve been summed up as ‘caveat emptor’.
Second para – bollocks. ‘Investing’ in a duplicitous salad, no matter how engaging, won’t maintain the lifestyle K is so obviously accustomed to.
davel wrote:
How many would have invested in Nick alone even with his obvious charm if they knew the true state of the business.
Any takers?
I remember filling in a
I remember filling in a survey and said that the Hoy branding didn’t mean much to me and then shortly after it vanished, assumed the remainder of the responses were similar…. As if to represent the whole affair all the logos on my Hoy shorts have started peeling off. Don’t suppose I’ll try and get a refund…
Guys, road.cc is an
Guys, road.cc is an advertising clickbait site for cycling products.
You won’t find any reporters, investigative journalists or pullitzer prize winners here. They put out ‘reviews’ and rider v motorist culture war youtube videos. That’s it. Regurgitate some guide every season.
It has a comments section so some of us can make the day go in a bit faster by calling each other names over petty issues.
It is what it is. No point asking where the proper journalism is on such and such
unconstituted wrote:
That is a dis-respectful and wholly personal opinion, it smacks of entitlement and a lack of manners to me.
peted76 wrote:
Sorry I hurt your feelings pete. Clearly you have an attachment to this place.
Editorial
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Our reviews are renowned for their depth, knowledge and integrity.
Independent
road.cc is an independent publisher fuelled by enthusiasm and a true passion for cycling, not a global corporation with shareholders to satisfy. Our commitment to you is to over deliver on editorial excellence and customer satisfaction. We firmly believe that our independent approach and distinctive voice creates a unique relationship with our readers, one from which our advertisers benefit.
If Road.cc was a film, it
If Road.cc was a film, it would be ‘faces of death’ or ‘mondo cane’
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Superb references!
I think Unconstituted has got the nail on the head with his earlier post.
Not the Sunday Times Front
Not the Sunday Times Front Page Nick would have hoped for…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/crowd-investors-hurt-as-cycling-firm-crashes-rvjm8l9qg
Shame he was not able to comment …
Fixie Girl wrote:
……. nor Sir Chris…….
Anyone else hitting refresh
Anyone else hitting refresh every other hour or so, waiting for Monday in the USA and for Fixie Girl to get online?
Paul J wrote:
One of two things are going to happen next – she’s either genuinely going to make a big reveal, or come up with nothing and make herself look a little foolish. It’s ‘put up or shut up’ time.
Not good to read August Cycles comment that, even now, the stories coming out of Vulpine appear less than honest.
simonmb wrote:
One of two things are going to happen next – she’s either genuinely going to make a big reveal, or come up with nothing and make herself look a little foolish. It’s ‘put up or shut up’ time.
Not good to read August Cycles comment that, even now, the stories coming out of Vulpine appear less than honest.— Paul J
Simon et al
There is no smoking gun on the grassy knoll but a catalog of avoidable and repeated mistakes. What were you expecting btw?
Some of what I was going say did get picked up by the Sunday Times and CityAM over the weekend. It did pull a few punches IMHO but did give you a sense of the personalities at work while staying teh right side of potential libel.
I have much more detail around why I/we walked away from a deal back in 2015 and why I made the same decision more recently. I will post once we know what is happening re the Administrator. The deadline for a buyer was today and AFAIK one hasnt been found. I hope there is a statement from the by the time I get to my office.
Fixie Girl wrote:
Also known as human error.
I don’t have a dog in this fight – I have never purchased anything from Vulpine (although in a strange coincidence I met a bloke last week who was wearing an item of Vulpine attire …. spooky), I wasn’t an investor and I don’t know any of the individuals involved.
At the risk of stating the obvious, this isn’t a story about cycling, it’s the same hackneyed tale of capitalism that’s been played out for more than a century (at least). Businesses fail, stakeholders – owners, investors, lenders, suppliers, customers – lose money. Equity investing was traditionally a game for grown ups, although incremental deregulation of markets has meant that retail investors can also aspire to be “#stockmarketsuperheroes”. In “proper” markets those investors are protected (to a greater or lesser degree, depending on how jaundiced your perspective is) by a regulatory framework that prioritises disclosure and standards of behaviour (that some people still manage to circumvent/disregard). The revolutionary growth of non-traditional investment platforms has unsurprisingly outpaced the evolutionary pace of regulation. CrowdCube is more akin to the betting shop and probably should carry the same warning that “When the fun stops .. stop“. As its disclaimer says: “Investing in start-ups and early stage businesses involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution, and it should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Crowdcube is targeted exclusively at investors who are sufficiently sophisticated to understand these risks and make their own investment decisions. You will only be able to invest via Crowdcube once you are registered as sufficiently sophisticated.” If you lost money that you invested in Vulpine via CrowdCube and you feel robbed, congratulations, you’ve just paid to learn that you aren’t sufficiently sophisticated to understand the risks and to make your own investment decisions.
As for suing the directors – good luck with that. Even if liability can be established, the proceeds will be negligible (management won’t be worth much) and be swept up by the secured creditors.
Chalk it up to experience and move on.
surly_by_name wrote:
You make some very good and valid points on investments, CrowdCube and capitalism.
However, I think the outrage on this forum and in general is due to Nick and Crowdcube’s outlandish promises, spectacular failure to deliver, nepotism, greed, frankly not being straight with people who backed them with their hard earned cash!
surly_by_name wrote:
I wouldn’t be so sure – http://www.helix-law.co.uk/blog/22-director-s-liability-on-company-insolvency
Whether invesotrs can be deemed as creditors is for somebody in a court to decide I guess.
This is why Directors & Officers insurance exists – so you don’t lose your house if the proverbial hits the fan and you’re sued.
Rapha Nadal wrote:
I guess there is a principle here, what has happened just sticks in my throat…
Especially when I reread this from road.cc piece on round two funding…
“Again, we want you to own us. To influence us and to be part of our story. To see it from the inside. I’ve loved having 577 customers and friends as co-owners.
“Like our wares, shares are limited,” he added. “Many lost out last time, as we raised so much faster than expectations. Grab a piece of us while you can.”
Judging by the responses RSM its toast.
There is also a rumour doing the rounds over here already that someone bought himself a $1M home in Dec.. Its still too early for me to confirm.. Perhaps one of you guys could do some digging while the caffeine kicks in here
Fixie Girl wrote:
–
amazon22 wrote:
Do you have a link please?
Fixie Girl wrote:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07211640/officers
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html/svr/3114;jsessionid=0E79DA64664E58BB3E605C059244C283?prop=44123487&sale=89280156&country=england
dubtap wrote:
Does this mean we dont know where he lives…? Now thats a crying shame!
Fixie Girl wrote:
You’re getting more than a bit odd now.
I notice that the pop up
I notice that the pop up adverts on this page are now for insolvency practitioners – not your usual cycling bling!
muhasib wrote:
I don’t think that’s quite how it works, the adverts you see are based on your contextual searches. FYI I’m seeing datacentre cooling ads and online comic books shops (which sort of sums it up!).. you can install or turn on an ad blocker if you wished to.
Clickbait is defined as: content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page. I see no clickbait in this post, none that constitutes any direct commercial gain for the site anyway.
road.cc walk a tightrope for
road.cc walk a tightrope for content.
yes, they have published a bunch of info about Vulpine over the last few years, because vulpine are/were good at PR and sending out press-releases.
If other firms did the same then road.cc would publish. as a news site they are always going to be looking out for content, if manufacturers oblige then it works nicely.
it also helped that vulpine kit was generally pretty decent, so the interest from the public was there (it’s evident that you can see a shift in mood towards vulpine as the thread has progressed…)
about 30 posts below this there was talk about how the advertising spend decreased massively after a year or two – that would have coincided with vulpine stopping their sponsorship of a ladies pro-team (which had laura trott on the roster) – it’s easy to make judgements purely from numbers, but context is also important.
I’ve crashed a company before, not quite this spectacularly, but still – it’s going to be hard on Nick, I’m sure he started off with the best of intentions, but something went awry over the last couple of years.
Fixie Girl: The Sunday Times
Fixie Girl: The Sunday Times is paywalled. People here may not be familiar with any new details in its article.
Paul J wrote:
Article below… Enjoy
“When it raised more than £1m on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube in October 2015, Vulpine Performance seemed to have the wind behind it. The cycling clothing brand had shot glossy promotional films in Italy and Norway, struck a collaboration with the Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy and said it was on course to break even.
Less than two years later, it is about to collapse. Two partners from accountancy firm RSM are due to be appointed administrators tomorrow, with the likelihood of losses for about 600 shareholders, including several well-known angel investors. It has prompted one early backer to describe crowdfunding websites as “a ticking timebomb”.
Vulpine was set up by Nick Hussey, a former film maker, in 2010. A keen amateur cyclist, he said he wanted to escape the “snobbery” of the professional sport and create a brand that would appeal to casual riders.
Over the next few years he raised £1.1m in seed funding from backers including Philip Jenks, a founder of the publisher Harriman House, and Simon Hulme, a serial investor in start-ups. Several people who put in money said that Hussey, now 43, was enthusiastic and persuasive.
An investment banker said: “Everyone bought the cycling thing and everyone got that it was a lifestyle brand with a trendy look — you get off the bike and go into the pub.”
However, according to several early backers, Hussey insisted on spending large sums of money on marketing and refused to rein that in when challenged. Vulpine also struggled with retail basics, they said, often ordering large amounts of stock and then being forced to discount it aggressively, eroding the brand’s desirability. There were also some problems with late deliveries from Chinese factories, they added. Hussey said: “I am unable to comment during the administration process.”
Jenks and Hulme resigned from the board in frustration in 2015, followed by several other independent directors. In October 2015, Hussey turned to Crowdcube with the aim of raising £500,000. Although at the time he said it was an opportunity for fans to invest, a source said Hussey had “exhausted” his existing investor base.
Vulpine had announced its deal with Hoy earlier that year, and demand was so strong it raised £1m in a week, with at least one investor putting in £50,000. The fundraising valued it at £5m.
Vulpine burned through the money and failed to hit its sales targets. It remained loss making and tried to raise a further £750,000, at a £7.5m valuation, last month. This time it failed and was forced to call in administrators.
Hulme said: “Vulpine had failed abysmally to deliver what it had promised investors in the first round. To me, crowdfunding looks like a ticking timebomb.”
Crowdcube said it had complied with regulations and that, “whilst the failure of any business is disappointing, equity crowdfunding investments are high-risk and unfortunately not all businesses will provide an exit for shareholders”.”
Fixie Girl wrote:
Article below… Enjoy
“When it raised more than £1m on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube in October 2015, Vulpine Performance seemed to have the wind behind it. The cycling clothing brand had shot glossy promotional films in Italy and Norway, struck a collaboration with the Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy and said it was on course to break even.
Less than two years later, it is about to collapse. Two partners from accountancy firm RSM are due to be appointed administrators tomorrow, with the likelihood of losses for about 600 shareholders, including several well-known angel investors. It has prompted one early backer to describe crowdfunding websites as “a ticking timebomb”.
Vulpine was set up by Nick Hussey, a former film maker, in 2010. A keen amateur cyclist, he said he wanted to escape the “snobbery” of the professional sport and create a brand that would appeal to casual riders.
Over the next few years he raised £1.1m in seed funding from backers including Philip Jenks, a founder of the publisher Harriman House, and Simon Hulme, a serial investor in start-ups. Several people who put in money said that Hussey, now 43, was enthusiastic and persuasive.
An investment banker said: “Everyone bought the cycling thing and everyone got that it was a lifestyle brand with a trendy look — you get off the bike and go into the pub.”
However, according to several early backers, Hussey insisted on spending large sums of money on marketing and refused to rein that in when challenged. Vulpine also struggled with retail basics, they said, often ordering large amounts of stock and then being forced to discount it aggressively, eroding the brand’s desirability. There were also some problems with late deliveries from Chinese factories, they added. Hussey said: “I am unable to comment during the administration process.”
Jenks and Hulme resigned from the board in frustration in 2015, followed by several other independent directors. In October 2015, Hussey turned to Crowdcube with the aim of raising £500,000. Although at the time he said it was an opportunity for fans to invest, a source said Hussey had “exhausted” his existing investor base.
Vulpine had announced its deal with Hoy earlier that year, and demand was so strong it raised £1m in a week, with at least one investor putting in £50,000. The fundraising valued it at £5m.
Vulpine burned through the money and failed to hit its sales targets. It remained loss making and tried to raise a further £750,000, at a £7.5m valuation, last month. This time it failed and was forced to call in administrators.
Hulme said: “Vulpine had failed abysmally to deliver what it had promised investors in the first round. To me, crowdfunding looks like a ticking timebomb.”
Crowdcube said it had complied with regulations and that, “whilst the failure of any business is disappointing, equity crowdfunding investments are high-risk and unfortunately not all businesses will provide an exit for shareholders”.”— Paul J
You forgot to mention that the article was ‘headed’ by a prominent photograph of Sir Chris…….awkward!
All I want to know now is
All I want to know now is when they are going to flog off the stock. Through sportpursuit maybe?
Ive been chatting to one of
Ive been chatting to one of our legal guys over here, he’s here from the UK. His view is that the investors have a good case of “wrongful trading’ against the directors..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrongful_trading
Potential red flags are:
Directors paid excessive salaries when the company cannot afford them.
Taking credit from suppliers where there was no “reasonable prospect” of paying the creditor on time
Deliberately increasing debt
FG
PS I will look to see if there is an update from the administrator this lunchtime..
Fixie Girl wrote:
I’ve been half following this, and what a sorry tale: misguided products in a very crowded, competitive market and, from what I’ve read, inept management. If I were a crowdfunder looking to recoup I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Whilst on the face of it the Wrongful Trading criteria seem to have been met, one of the difficulties the crowdfunders may encounter is that crowdfunding tends to be structured as an equity investment (as opposed to a loan). The Times article you posted hints at this. Generally in insolvencies the first to recoup are those with a fixed charge over the company’s assets (i.e. secured lenders – probably just stock in this case as they seem to have been outsouring manufacturing); the second are unsecured creditors (if any for a company with these accounts!), and ‘equity investors’, including non-voting ones (i.e. crowdfunders) wait at the back…. but I wouldn’t hold my breath whilst I waited.
Chris Hayes wrote:
Agreed, there are 2 charges on HSBC according to companies house. Cannot discover how much for though. Both were taken out this year which starts alarm bells ringing.
The current stock is valued at £250k, imho this is optimistic ESP if the administrator move to liquidate.
What about one secured
What about one secured charged being repaid days before administration? That surely was to evade the rules on administration, debt priority and winding up of companies?
Paul J wrote:
I saw that – the one repaid to the Director’s lending company… the security was comprehensive in terms of the stuff it nails down so my guess is that is is more likely to have been repaid to get another secured loan – possibly from HSBC. As you can see below, the Fixed Charge T&Cs seem incompatible the offer of further security.
By the way – you’d have to be over a barrel to enter into T&Cs such as this, anyway. Something the Credit Officers for the Crowdfunder should have picked up easily.
Here’s the charge that was repaid. I would imagine the new charge mirrors this. If it is then the new lender owns the stock, trademarks, IP, everything.
As continuing security for the payment of the secured liabilities the borrower with full title guarantee:. (A) charges to the lender by way of legal mortgage all freehold or leasehold property owned by the borrower at the date of this deed;. (B) charges to the lender by way of equitable mortgage its interest in any freehold or leasehold property acquired by the borrower after the date of this deed;. (C) charges to the lender by way of fixed charge its interest in:. (I) all existing and future fittings, plant, equipment, machinery, tools, vehicles, furniture and other tangible movable property;. (Ii) any investment;. (Iii) its existing and future goodwill and uncalled capital;. (Iv) the debts and all existing and future cash at bank;. (V) any intellectual property;. (Vi) any money now or at any time after the date of this deed standing to the credit of any designated account; and. (Vii) to the extent not otherwise subject to any fixed security in favour of the lender:. (A) any existing and future proceeds of any insurance of any charged property; and. (B) any sum now or at any time after the date of this deed received by the borrower as a result of any order of the court under sections 213, 214, 238, 239 or 244 of the insolvency act 1986;. (d) assigns to the lender by way of fixed charge its interest in and the benefit of all agreements for the supply of goods or services by the borrower entered into on or before the date of this deed and the benefit of any guarantee or security for the performance of any of such agreements or other documents provided that if any such agreement, other document, guarantee or security is expressed to be non-assignable then the borrower charges to the lender by way of fixed charge its interest in and the benefit of it.
Contains fixed charge.
Contains floating charge.
Floating charge covers all the property or undertaking of the company.
Contains negative pledge.
http://road.cc/content/news
http://road.cc/content/news/221094-vulpine-returns-crowdcube-round-2-funding-after-raising-%C2%A31m-2015-video
It’s all a bit schizophrenic. The website falls over because there’s TOO Much stock and it needs to be sold off. The cash flow is because of too much stock being ordered necessitating the sell off. And then to say ‘that jacket will still be there come pay day’ is a weird approach. Looks like some of the investors didn’t like that approach either.
A thorough piece of
A thorough piece of journalism over at Bikebiz…
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/what-the-hell-happened-at-vulpine/021275
Miggers wrote:
Quality. But… that’s Carlton Reid for you. Old school honesty and commitment. Love the guy.
Much as it appears he’s been
Much as it appears he’s been pretty unethical, and much as I don’t like the bloke, posting up his home address details is a bit out of order
VeloPeo wrote:
It’s all in the public record. It’s not like anyone has doxxed him.
Plus Nick was never shy of publicity before.
If you look through the
If you look through the accounts and registered addresses and the sales history of Mr.Husseys house it would appear he has transferred/sold the house to his Mrs. That way they cant lose it can they…………….
TrekAndy wrote:
I’ve been reliably informed that neither Nick nor his wife own the property in question.
Fixie Girl wrote:
I’ve been reliably informed that neither Nick nor his wife own the property in question. — TrekAndy
Why would he lose the house anyway? Vulpine is a limited company – it’s he company that’s gone bust, not Nick personally.
SimonS wrote:
No, but a director may be personally liable to creditors (not, I think, shareholders) if the company was trading while insolvent. It sounds as though Vulpine may have been technically insolvent for some time.
SimonS wrote:
Depends if any loans were secured on it.
Shouldn’t he update Companies House of his new address if he moved in Dec 16?
@Fixie Girl
While Nick’s movements and motives are being analysed by you in fine detail, it’s perhaps fair to enquire of you – why the extreme interest? You even appear to have set up a Twitter account @fixie_girl with the express purpose of dishing the dirt on Vulpine. Who are you, and why the fixation?
simonmb wrote:
Also like how the photo on “her” twitter profile is a crop from a stock image… http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/happy-young-woman-holding-a-blank-sign-isolated-royalty-free-image/175435439
honesty wrote:
Hope you like my real pic. Taken a few years ago now. If you notice I look like the stock pic which was in fact sent to me by a colleague who joked that I was moonlighting as a ‘model’..
The bio is real and I have real friends following this and my public Twitter accts. Willing to put your true details online? I guess honesty isn’t your real name but I could be wrong.
Fixie Girl wrote:
Very nice photo. Better than a dodgy crop of a stock image. I find things like that are usually red flags for fake accounts. I mean if you really don’t want to have something there why not just leave it blank? Surely you can see how that may cause some people to question your motives?
Anyway as with things on the internet it’s better to view everything with a level of healthy scepticism.
simonmb wrote:
If you look I have been active on road.cc for many years. I dont wish to use my personal account on Twitter to highlight the issues at Vulpine because I don’t have to. Ditto the avatar.
Should I fear doxing now?
I had my earlier posts deleted by Tony where I thought explained why. I met Nick at the beginning and I disagreed with his motivation. I called him out on this and from memory we even had a few arguments on this forum too.
When I saw what happened 2 weeks back I had a bad feeling and I did some digging and what I found truly shocked me. It isnt just me who saw what was wrong at Vulpine, Bikebiz, The Times and others sites took a similar view and published their conclusions. Which are broadly the same as mine. I work in a broadly similar business so its relatively easy to find this info by the way.
I have nothing to gain from this either way. I liked a lot of what Vulpine did, hell I even bought some kit. My Harrington is one of the first and I do think far better than later iterations.
Bottom line, I am genuinely angry that someone has gone out of their way to be reckless with other people money to prove a point, the company under his leadership has lost over £2M of investors money, while enriching himself at their expense. At the same time his bad decisions will be felt in the cycle clothing market when 1000’s of products hit the outlet shops hurting other brands unfairly, when others try to raise funds and so on.
Knowing Nick I am sure he will we surface soon and no doubt play the victim again. I guess you all know him on Twitter?
BTW I was being ironic about the house and his ‘movements’ which I should have been clearer.
Buying a house is a personal
Buying a house is a personal transaction – it’s got nothing to do with the company or the company’s finances. You can hardly hold that against him. It’s likely he knew the future looked rocky and wanted to get a mortgage while he was in (what looked to the bank) to be a good postion. So long as he keeps up the payments on the mortgage no one loses out. If he doesn’t the bank foreclose and there’s likely enough equity that they get their money back.
I can’t see any issue with his wife giving up her job and joining the company as well – many small businesses are run like that. However, the salary bill is quite something for a company making losses.
Overbuying stock seems to have been the main issue and according to one of the pieces is why the original directors left. I really like the Vulpine clothing I’ve got but it was all bought in sales/clearances and you’ve only got to do that a couple of times before no-one is buying at full price.
Upping the full prices in 2017 took them way beyond what the clothes felt they were worth. At the first 30% off everything sale early in the season it was obvious something was wrong.
Are any shareholders planning
Are any shareholders planning to come together to find out what is actually happened and if there are options for recourse?
gva wrote:
I understand the @lairdelmski on Twitter is raising a posse. He is well connected in the City of London and the press.
FG
I haven’t really been
I haven’t really been following this thread because it’s a bit dumb, but looking at the last few posts, it does make me chuckle. A promised salacious revelation that amounts to zero on an anynomous internet forum. Salaries (yeah, like £10k a month is anything special for a CEO…WTF-LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!). And house prices now. So many DMIs (Daily Mail Idiots) on this site these days.
Lets burn Nick’s house down unless we get our £179 back….cos there’s nothing better to put our energy into .
Kadinkski wrote:
So you invested over £10,000 in this business, and having read about how badly the finances were and how poorly it was managed, you’ve still got nothing for love?
I hope for your sake you make some better investment decisions in future
olic wrote:
I admit I’ve made some terrible investment decisions. I get overly emotional and get carried away with big ideas and concepts. But two things to note:
1) I genuinely only invest what I can afford to lose.
2) Some have paid off spectacularly (just to give context – 6 fig invested in Facebook over the months it was trading sub $20 – now worth 7 fig). I sound like a dick saying that but I’m not sure how else to give context.
I can honestly and truly say i don’t give a shit about $13k invested in Vulpine – I took a punt on Nick and it failed. I’ve moved on. So should you weirdos.
Kadinkski wrote:
Well done on making money, each to their own but even Facebook can’t do anything about your size…I’m sorry!
Turns out that people running
Turns out that people running businesses are after your money and don’t always tell the truth. Who knew?
Some of my favourite quotes from this thread:
“I had issues with a Hoy Fortress Jersey pockets. The bartack stitching was becoming loose”
“If they had sorted out the boob issue years ago, perhaps it would have made a difference?”
“The last business moves seem shady and lacking in morals.”
“I feel a bit mis led if im honest as not at any given time were there any warnings of this”
“Sadly someone beat me to my reveal on Monday.”
“Wow, taking over £9k per month in the last 4 months?”
“His many absurd mistakes include: 1) Telling investors everything was rosy when it wasn’t”
“The previous pitch in 2015 1) No mention of the Hoy brand being finite”
“I notice that the pop up adverts on this page are now for insolvency practitioners – not your usual cycling bling!”
“If you look through the accounts and registered addresses and the sales history of Mr.Husseys house it would appear he has transferred/sold the house to his Mrs.”
Have you all got together for the special school’s outing?
Spacer wrote:
Brilliant. I don’t mean to sound glib, but honestly, reading that gives me the exact same slightly depressed feeling I get from reading Daily Mail comment threads.
Well let’s put it this way,
Well let’s put it this way, it is a great pity that a company with some great products looks like it is about to go under and perhaps there are lessons in this to be learnt ?
There are also some points that are worth investingating so that mistakes are not repeated.
Sure, money was raised from investors and the projections (with the benefit of hindsight) look to be too optimistic. Perhaps some scrutiny of those projections is not unreasonable ?
What about disclosures of key facts in the run up to the fund raising ? What was disclosed about the longevity of the Hoy/Vulpine relationship ? The key routes to market (i.e. Evans cycles who appear to have closed the door) ? What about the board changes, was a complete change in board membership (other than the founder) disclosed ? What of the charges/loans and their disclosure?
The timing and sale of the founder’s house might be worthy of further enquiry ?
Ultimately if you raise capital you are the custodian of it and duty bound to act in the best interest of your investors and backers and whilst it might be small beer to some, it doesn’t mean difficult questions shouldn’t be asked and most importantly, answered.
@gva – watch the personal
@gva – watch the personal abuse or we’ll delete your account and you’ve only had it for six days.
I’m puzzled why someone with
I’m puzzled why someone with no financial skin in this game would spend this much time and effort here, and then create a second Twitter account, just because they’re ‘angry’.
You haven’t lost anything, a company has failed. It happens every day. The full story will no doubt come out in time.
But this is looking like a very personal vendetta.
Gweeds wrote:
1. How do you know I havent. Maybe I am a disgruntled ex-employee or spurned lover.. Or maybe its from a misguided sense of justice?
2. I just want to keep this separate from my work – are you 100% transparent on the internet Gweeds? What’s your point, the bio and pic are 100% genuine
3. Without people contradicting the narrative that Nick was a poor victim of circumstances 99% of people here would be ignorant of the incompetence that led to hundreds of people losing over £2m.
4. I only posted facts on here after seeing posts about poor Nick and had to say something. If it was personal then Tony F would have soon quite rightly ‘slapped me down’.
5. I have not disguised the fact that I have publically disagreed with Nick and his methods in the past on here, F2F and Twitter.
6. Are you suggesting that unless someone is intimately involved with something they cannot have an opinion? So much for free speech in the UK then
7. Yes I am angry, is that a crime? Lots of people have been screwed, a few of my friends among them. If Crowdcube had done their duedil, if the original investors had “allegedly” got their winding up order, if I had said something in Oct 15.
This whole clusterf**k was avoidable.
I am off to the gym and I will take my facts and opinions with me..
Jenny aka FG
Gweeds wrote:
So what if it is personal?
At least there’s a counter-narrative to the anodyne first page of ‘that’s a shame: such a nice man/cool company/but my pocket fell off’ waste of cyberspace.
Also, exactly how do you suppose the truth does come out in these stories? Do truth fairies eventually sit down with someone connected in a pub, or give the scoop to the FT? Or is it that enough people get angry about it to do some digging, and highlight other sources that took a similar line, and someone can be arsed banging the drum loud enough for it to break into the mainstream?
You might not be personally affected, or motivated to do anything: great. But the world would be a far, far shitter place if only people who’d been personally wronged got angry and motivated.
So, apart from feeling very
So, apart from feeling very naive as well as a little stupid, I hope someone can gve me a factual not opinion based answer. I sent back a pair of Vulpine jeans last week because they are too wide at the bottom, for my liking. Will I get a refund? If not, will they sed me the jeans back?
Worried of Worthing (closest place that begins with a W!)
Polite wrote:
Don’t worry, flares will come back into fashion.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
They never went out as far as I am concerned but thanks for your concern about my £85!
Whether you will get either
Whether you will get either the Jeans back or a refund is a good question.
I’m currently sitting on a Harrington Jacket that I don’t require, as I bought two sizes. As the website still looks exactly the same as it did pre Administration, I sent them an email asking whether they were still honouring their returns policy. I still haven’t had reply, over a week later, so I’m not holding my breath.
If they are still trading then surely they must still comply with the Sale of Goods Act and thus their returns policy.
andybed wrote:
Andy- what size/ colour are you trying to get rid of? I might be interested.
rjfrussell]
Andy- what size/ colour are you trying to get rid of? I might be interested.
It’s a Medium size, Lightweight Harrington, in Black.
Let me know if you’re interested.
I’m not an expert but I
I’m not an expert but I believe they are still trading while in administration; the administrators run the company while seeking a buyer or failing that, dispose of the assets in order to pay creditors. I’m a lowly ‘shareholder’ (or as I prefer to call it ‘charitable giver’) and will be lucky to get a penny in the pound on my ‘investment.’
But if they are still trading
But if they are still trading whilst in Administration and there is no mention of this on the website, and you purchased and item from them today, unawhere of the insolvency, then wouldn’t you presume that you were buying with the Sale of Goods Act and even the terms of their ‘Free Returns’ still applying.
Isn’t this dishonest at best and illegal at worst.
I’ve just seen a tweet from
I’ve just seen a tweet from ‘Cyclelove’ advising not to buy from the website as the notice about the being in Administration is easily missed.
Just checked the homepage myself and it is now showing that their in Administration. They’re also advising against placing any new orders.
Really not sure when this changed, but if you don’t go to their homepage first then you will still be non the wiser.
andybed wrote:
Yup that was me — as we had been promoting Vulpine via an affiliate deal I wanted to let people know what was happening, especially as they’ve been so quiet on social media. (Not sure I’m going to get the money I’m owed from this yet).
Dear road.cc writers: have
Dear road.cc writers: have there been enough (or, any) new developments on this story to warrant a new story? Rather than the comments being about a hundred times longer than the original article?
brooksby wrote:
Agree. It’s clearly something of interest to your readers, and of critical relevance to the cycling industry. I’m sure you’d get quotes from some parties involved.
simonmb wrote:
It is coming but just like the shite on you get on Singletrackworld et al they are waiting for someone else to write the content to copy and paste it.
SingleSpeed wrote:
FTFY.
brooksby wrote:
I agree, where’s the update?
Unfortunately road.cc only
Unfortunately road.cc only rehash press releases from Vulpine and many others while also posting the odd helmet cam video crash.
Very much doubt we will see any actual investigative journalism on this.
gbzpto wrote:
I agree, where’s the update?
— longhaul.cc— brooksby
There will be an update when there is something new to say that isn’t based on the ‘facts’ presented by anonymous people in an internet comments section – some of whom would seemingly have an axe to grind with Vulpine and Nick Hussey in particular.
I know, it’s unprofessional of us – cos we’re all about the clicks here on road.cc.
By now we really should have put together a piece regurgitating all the ‘facts’ presented here as fact without checking them with the administrator or giving Nick Hussey the chance to put his side of the case, or without really caring what the consequences of doing that would be for the sale of Vulpine itself and the other people – apart from Nick Hussey – whose livelihoods also depended on the company.
Yeah, I’m ashamed our standards really have slipped, but given that lamentable decline you’ll just have to wait until we can speak to the administrators (we’ve been trying). That will probably happen when Vulpine’s corporate fate is resolved one way or the other which can’t be too far away. At that point too Nick Hussey, who we’ve also spoken to and who says he’s prevented from answering his critics by the terms of the company administration, will presumably be free to put his side of the story which we’ll all be very interested to hear I’m sure.
At the end of it all no doubt some people are going to come out of this saga with their actions, motives and judgement called in to question – some of those will be real people, using their real names in the real world and even on the internet too and they’ll pay some sort of price. And some may well be fictional internet creations with real people hiding behind them – somewhere – and they won’t.
Tony Farrelly wrote:
Thank you for the update, Tony. I don’t think anyone (well, most people
) were criticising road.cc’s professionalism. It’s just a little frustrating when a (relatively) big story like this one explodes and then just goes utterly, completely silent (except for the echo chamber below the line).
(Could we just have a new story maybe saying that Mr Hussey has said he’s not allowed to comment, etc, just so we can finally retire this article and its associated 20MB of comments…?)
Tony Farrelly wrote:
Right now, even “no comment” is a valuable quote – particularly to on a website where so many readers appear to have appointed themselves editor. (I am a real editor – not here though – by the way).
But your response is appreciated, and good enough for now
This comment thread is
This comment thread is vertically compliant and laterally stiff with all the latest tech, it’s leading the disc brake charge with plus size tyres for your gravel riding, you think where does that road go and with its more upright sportive all day comfort geometry this thread says yes, go down the road you don’t know. And also you’ll no doubt have noticed it comes in this seasons must have gray text in a white background colour.
Its a £250 pair of shorts when you only ride one day a week, it’s 15% better than the previous version but still more expensive and 10% worse than the competition. It’s at a discount to Rrp but still at the same price as 40weeks of the year, it’s race results when you are still coming home from work. It’s time I pressed save without checking spelling and grammar!
check12 wrote:
It’s not all about you. Some people here actually manage to ride a bike more than once a week.
By the way, if you want to talk about spelling and grammar, “Its” should be “It’s”.
Spacer wrote:
I think you missed the point @Spacer. Try reading @check12’s second paragraph in your very best and most ironic [clue] Alanis Morissette voice.
But you’re right about the apostrophe. No excuse for that.
simonmb wrote:
Yeah, thanks, Trigger. Christ!
Spacer wrote:
Extremely slow clap for you, Spacer…
Read my full post spacer,
Read my full post spacer, apology accepted.
I ride more than once a week and don’t mind paying for quality but I’m not getting ripped off.
check12 wrote:
Yeah, I read it, sadly. It was snidey sixth form shite littered with grammatical errors.
Spacer wrote:
Whereas you’re setting this thread alight, Wilde-style…
I’m still very interested in
I’m still very interested in what has been happening with Vulpine and would hope to see more coverage from online media. I’d really like to know what’s happening.
I restate that I love their products and have lots of them, but I read their crowdfunding pitch and thought I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole (the “rewards” were cr*p and the overall company aim was to sell out).
Think the big lesson here is how unregulated crowdfunding is.
Blimey, 230 posts about a now
Blimey, 230 posts about a now extinct, minor player in the cycling rag trade. Probably more posts in a week than they took orders. Sadly the crowd funding model allows Jo Public to take a punt on businesses the owner cannot / will not back. The banks, trade finance, PE have all kicked the tyres on this and walked away from it.
Tony,
Tony,
I find the below and your latest post a little smug and condescending…
Tony Farrelly wrote:
@Fixie Girl
Hi there,
In case you’re wondering where some of your comments on this story have gone – we’ve deleted them to save you from the real risk of being sued for slander.
Not sure how it works over there in Portland but over here if you call someone a crook you generally need to be able to back the assertion up with something more than your “Spidey Sense”.
As for the rumours circulating in Portland – we’ve asked around and they would appear to have no basis in fact.
At least one member of the road.cc team invested money in Vulpine, we’ve been reviewing their kit since they launched, and from time to time they’ve advertised on the site – generally we like their stuff.
Our hope is that the company will emerge from administration in some form, ideally with all or most of its workforce intact.
Don’t know how likely that is to happen, but I do know that personal abuse and unfounded rumours from someone who seems to be neither a Vulpine customer, investor or employee is unlikely to do much to help that positive outcome become a reality – the personal abuse bit also breaks our site T&Cs.
Tony,
road.cc editor
I’m not going back thru 8 pages to know whether it was sent personally or posted as a comment but either way I would anticipate that you would have more respect for your customers. Also, if you find calling someone a ‘crook’ to be a danger then why is it back within the comments section?
At the outset there was a large defensive push that roadcc was simply a fan of their clothes, shared their news and ads yet the discourse remains that you are spinning everything positively “is unlikely to do much to help that positive outcome become a reality”.
From what I have read the likelihood of a positive outcome is minimal and the ability of the man in question to run a business successfully well er… I’ll avoid slander. If encouraging people to stick to the facts and only post things written in stone then surely you have to be a little more balanced with your use of language.
Your latest post has a very relevant point about what people are allowed to say. Unfortunately, I nearly missed it as 75% of what you said was cheap digs at some of your customers for doing exactly what an internet site based on readership and discussion is likley to do. I do like your use of sarcasm though, journalism of the highest order.
p.s. please don’t ban me, roadcc is all I have!
alansmurphy wrote:
Don’t worry Alan, you have to do a lot better/worse than that to get yourself banned around here.
alansmurphy wrote:
Doh!
Nice one F̶i̶x̶i̶e̶ ̶G̶i̶r̶l̶ J̶e̶n̶n̶y̶ Alan
I understood that the
I understood that the deadline for bids for the sale of the business was last Friday. I only know because the guy who replaced me at Shutt mentioned it. And no I don’t think they put in a bid. It was a low price to get it apparently just not low enough.
Pete
I just lerned this today.
I just lerned this today.
Sad. Sad for the people who invested and who worked for Vulpine.
I have a few of their items and different ranges but again like most I only bought it when they have sample sale.
some interesting comments on
some interesting comments on the bikebiz article that they managed to get written over a week ago, none of them mine btw;
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/what-the-hell-happened-at-vulpine/021275
Vulpine sold to Mango bikes.
Vulpine sold to Mango bikes. Will Mr.Hussey break his silence now??
TrekAndy wrote:
No. Not until the press release is issued. I got in before the official announcement.
Carlton Reid wrote:
No. Not until the press release is issued. I got in before the official announcement.— TrekAndy
It’s on Facebook, must be true… 😉
The Mango Bikes thing is
The Mango Bikes thing is great news. From my dealings with Nick you just know that he’s the sort of guy that can pull this kind of deal off – despite the moronic internet trolls spraying shade while sitting in their bedroom eating cheetohs.
Kadinkski wrote:
Who the F are mango? A soft drink?
Kandinski -You are a total douche bag, and I bet you love the attention – If you really know Nick, which I doubt, then you know he is less than h*nest. If he has any dealings with this new venture I will eat my own … You are a total fan boy
Fixie Girl wrote:
Now, now.
Personally I can’t wait til the next blog about how growing up in a mining town, swearing lots, going to a tinpot university, having a gun held to his head and then working in films qualifies whoever made the deal as 4 Real 4 Life, Yo.
I had a toast tonight to a genuine cyclist who died doing something amazing.
Chancers like the manchild involved in making a load of overpriced shit and running its manufacturer into the ground to fund his poncey lifestyle need to GTFO of cycling. Mentioning no names, natch.
Pricks who feel the need to brag about £££ on bike threads are no better – even worse if you’re full of shit, which, statistically, you probably are.
Also, if Unconstituted is reading this, Unflounce, mate.
Fixie Girl wrote:
They’re an independant British bike brand – somewhat ‘urban’. They don’t do any clothing at the moment – it’ll be fascinating to see how they take the brand forward – they’re a really creative company.
Interesting times 🙂
Kadinkski wrote:
By creative of course you mean importing Unipack fixed gear bikes with slightly upgraded parts and selling them at a really low margin. Then expanding by getting Brant Richards in to design and oragnise production of a new road bike and selling that at low margin as well.
What this is however is correctly identifiying the niche and operating in it. Which is a step up from the previous owner of Vulpine I guess.
cocomo wrote:
By creative of course you mean importing Unipack fixed gear bikes with slightly upgraded parts and selling them at a really low margin. Then expanding by getting Brant Richards in to design and oragnise production of a new road bike and selling that at low margin as well.
What this is however is correctly identifiying the niche and operating in it. Which is a step up from the previous owner of Vulpine I guess.— Kadinkski
Cutting but true. There’s a strange mystique around fixie bikes when any idiot could put one together. I’m living proof of that.
cocomo wrote:
No, I mean creative more in the sense of what they’ve done with their brand and positioning – moving away from traditional industry attributes such as performance or artisan-crafted or latest technology. They behave more like a bootstrapped tech startup.
I don’t know anything about the quality of their products though; I haven’t purchased anything from them.
Their market is above Tesco
Their market is above Tesco below Halfords, they are a cut price Planet X. Its no coincidence that’s who is backing them, and possibly this Vulpine bid(£50k)
cocomo wrote:
Planet X are a cut price Planet X. Everything is for sale for half the supposed rrp.
Mango are way ahead of most of halfords’ range, for what it’s worth.
I say this as someone who owns both a Planet X and a Mango bike.
Kadinkski wrote:
You mean sell a business he was flogging for £7.5m 3 weeks ago for £50,000! I think you are the Internet troll here!
gva wrote:
And where the stock was valued at over £250K
That must have taken some tough negotiating.
I see Nick has resurfaced on twitter and is slowly building up the Nick=Victim narrative.
I look forward to his response to my DMs and to other shareholders.
Jenny
Kadinkski wrote:
TBH after reading all the revelations about the company’s true financials, he seems a like a charlatan with no real business acumen. Come up with over-priced niche product, make losses, hide losses, ask for more money. What a business man!
I’d like to think people will think twice about lending him a pencil after all this. The world doesn’t need ‘visionaries’ that end up f@cking people over whilst showing off their bespoke bicycles.
TrekAndy wrote:
Why wasn’t this announced by @Fixie Girl? We need to know.
More great work by @Carlton Reid. More power to you fella!
Got my Cima Coppi light
Got my Cima Coppi light-weight jersey other day. I think I’ll be sticking with them from now on – they’re focused: Jerseys, jackets and base-layers, in wool, for cycling.
In all fairness, on the face
In all fairness, on the face of it it does look a really promising move.
Match made in heaven
Match made in heaven
Poncy hipster bike clothing company bought by poncy hipster bike company