Temple Cycles, the Bristol-based company known for its steel frames and durability, is to close its shop and cease bike manufacturing after 12 years, four years after more than 1200 investors raised £1.35 million in crowdfunding.
In an email to investors seen by Bristol 24/7, founder and CEO Matthew Mears said, “You put your money and trust into Temple and I’m very sorry that the business hasn’t delivered the outcome we hoped for […] I know this is disappointing news.”
He added that it was “an exceptionally difficult time to run a bicycle business” and that he doesn’t expect to return any investments to shareholders.
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Mears subsequently told road.cc, that rising costs “have been a problem for several years. The cost to do business has been increasing consistently year on year.
“Temple Cycles was always selling its bikes globally, in particular into Europe. Brexit created a lot of barriers and pushed up our costs to export our bikes in a big way.
“More generally, designing, manufacturing, distributing, and selling bikes is operationally complicated, and the margins are constantly getting squeezed, especially with the amount of discounting happening across the industry. This makes the whole thing unsustainable in the long run.”
Mears started Temple Cycles whilst a mechanical engineering student at the University of Bristol and opened a workshop in the city in 2016. In January, road.cc recommended Temple’s Adventure Disc 3 as one of the best all-road bikes of the year.
The brand had also entered the e-bike market during the coronavirus pandemic with both a Classic Electric and a Step through model, though weak sales elsewhere in the business couldn’t off-set demand in the e-bikes.
Despite the planned closure, the business has continued posting on social media today, and continues to advertise its Bristol and London showrooms, though the website currently states that the company has stopped accepting new bike orders “due to high demand”.
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Mears also told road.cc that the business would be scaled down to selling parts and accessories online, saying “the key thing” for him was the “thousands of Temple bikes out there on the roads and trails, and they will last for many more years, bringing joy to people’s daily lives”.
It is unclear how many job losses may result from the scaling down of operations, whilst Mears also confirmed the business would be restructured but would not be entering administration.
Describing the business’ developments since raising £1.35 million, Mears told investors, “We’ve worked hard to turn the business around while managing persistent pressure on cash flow.
“We substantially reduced overheads, launched new products, relocated our headquarters and opened a new showroom. Our electric bike performed well, but this was offset by weaker sales elsewhere.
“This year was intended to be our final push to return to profitability. Despite these efforts, we haven’t achieved the recovery we needed. The business also has existing debt commitments, and I don’t see a realistic route to generating the profits and cash reserves needed to meet them.
“Taken together, I no longer believe the current model offers a realistic route to a sustainable business.”
