Fran Millar has resigned as CEO of Rapha ahead of what she describes as “significant organisational changes to reduce cost and drive efficiency” at the iconic British cycling brand.
Millar, one of the founding members of Team Sky in 2009 and the squad’s former CEO, joined Rapha in 2024, after four years as the chief executive of Ineos-owned clothing company Belstaff.
Simon Mottram, who founded Rapha in 2004 alongside Luke Scheybeler, said at the time that Millar’s appointment marked “a significant milestone” for the company and that her experience “positions her uniquely to guide Rapha into its next chapter”.
In a LinkedIn post published on Wednesday morning, Millar insisted that the “vision and strategy” which underpinned her time leading the brand remains in place, but that the “delivery” of that vision will require a change in Rapha’s leadership structure.
“After two bonkers and brilliant years, I’ve decided to leave Rapha,” Millar said. “The vision and strategy I set are in place, and the path ahead for the brand is clear. What remains is delivery.
“To support that, the business will make significant organisational changes to reduce cost and drive efficiency, and those changes call for a different governance and leadership structure. With that in mind, I proposed to the board that I step down as CEO.
“I am incredibly proud of the passionate, loyal, committed people who work at Rapha across the world and it has been a joy to lead them for two years. All that remains to say is THANK YOU to our team, our members and the brand. It’s been an honour.”
The news of Millar’s departure, first reported by Escape Collective, represents the end of another chapter in what has been a tumultuous period for the British company.
Last October, it was revealed that, in the year to 26 January 2025 (which overlapped only slightly with Millar’s tenure), Rapha’s turnover dropped to £96m from £110m the year before, contributing to a net loss of £15.6m. It marked the brand’s eighth consecutive year in the red and came just 12 months after another £19.7m loss.
In a move to “demonstrate our commitment to transparency and a realistic valuation”, Rapha’s holding company Carpegna Ltd also reduced the carrying value of the company by two thirds from £169m to £67m.
The period of sustained losses stems largely from a significant ongoing amortisation figure from when Rapha was sold to RZC Investments in 2017, an investment firm owned by the two heirs to the Walmart fortune Steuart and Tom Walton.
That annual £10m+ amortisation charge will continue to appear in Rapha’s accounts, impacting the net loss/profit for the best part of the next decade, with the business’s leadership and financial team stating that it prefers to focus on how it is performing on its clothing and cycling performance alone.
Nevertheless, Rapha’s last accounts revealed a £2.6m loss on its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation.
In January, Rapha also announced that it was closing down its Manchester clubhouse, with four branches in the US set to follow, Millar saying the “painful decision” forms part of a host of changes “to bring greater focus” to the brand.
In an unusual move, as it announced last year’s losses, Rapha invited several journalists to its headquarters to explain its financial predicament and offer more insight into its plans for the future, road.cc among them.
During the meeting, Millar was keen to stress everyone at Rapha “knows the things we need to change” and suggested the financial results will “lag behind the huge amount of great work that is already being done to turn the business around”.
“I am proud to be leading the change needed and laying the foundations for a new chapter for Rapha,” she said. “We are only one year into a multi-year turnaround, with new leadership and a new business and marketing strategy – we know the things we need to change, the strengths we need to build on, and we are already making bold moves in the right direction.
“What you see in these financial results lags behind the huge amount of great work that is already being done to turn this business around. Everyone at Rapha is united and clear on the path we need to take and we are collectively implementing some tough but important changes that will set us up for success in the coming years.
“Transformation takes time, and we aren’t expecting to see immediate results but the strategic decisions we are taking, including the ones we are announcing today, will enable us to become profitable again as a business and support our vision to use the transformative power of cycling to make a difference to the world.”
Before joining Rapha in 2024, Millar, the sister of former professional cyclist David Millar, founded the cycling management agency FACE in 2000, managing the likes of Geraint Thomas and Mark Cavendish, before becoming part of the management team that established Team Sky in 2009 alongside Dave Brailsford.
Her previous roles at Sky and later Ineos included Director of Business Operations and Head of ‘Winning Behaviours’. As Sky’s partnership ended and the team transitioned into Ineos in 2018 and 2019, Millar became CEO of the British squad, and deputy CEO of the Ineos 1:59 Challenge, Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-two hour marathon attempt.
She was later appointed as CEO of clothing company Belstaff in October 2020 by Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe to improve the struggling brand’s financial position and enact “cultural change”.
At Rapha, she replaced Francois Convercey, who joined the company in 2015 and became Joint Managing Director alongside Daniel Blumire in November 2022 after the unexpected departure of William Kim after less than a year in the role.
