Mavic - Court names successful bidder for troubled wheel brand

Mavic, the France-based wheel brand that has been in receivership since 2 May, is to be sold to a group controlled by an entrepreneur behind one of the country’s biggest DIY chains.

The commercial court in Grenoble announced on Tuesday that the Bourrelier Group had been chosen as the preferred bidder out of 14 offers received for the troubled cycling business, reports the Dauphiné Libéré.

Mavic employs some 250 people, including 200 in France, with the new owners safeguarding 105 of the latter.

The joint managing directors of the Bourrelier Group are Jean-Michel Bourrelier and his son, Yoann Bourrelier, a former mountain bike racer who in 2007 founded the Ecox chain which sells e-bikes from 13 stores throughout France.

The group was previously known as Bricorama, which Bourrelier père built into one of France’s leading DIY chains before selling it at the end of 2017.

Currently, the Bourrelier Group runs 72 DIY stores in Belgium and the Netherlands under the Gamma and Karwel fascias, with annual turnover of €222.9 million last year.

Unsuccessful bids for the Annecy-based company included one from François Guers, owner of the Time brand and another involving five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault.

In December, months after it was sold by former parent Amer Sports to a US-based private equity firm, Mavic entered a process called conciliation which, under French insolvency law, seeks to arrive at an agreement between a business in difficulties and its creditors.

In February this year French business turnaround firm BySaving took over management of the company, which in May entered a process called redressement judiciaire, under which a court appoints a receiver who, working with management, seeks to maximise returns to creditors.