Rapha losses almost double to £22.7m as UK turnover drops 20% amid "challenged" cycling sector, brand's seventh consecutive year in the red

It's a pretty bleak set of results which would have been a heavy loss excluding the exceptionals and the balance sheet is almost entirely propped up by the intangible assets, most of which is attributable to Rapha Racing Limited. Take the intangibles out and the balance sheet is whittled away to almost nothing. 

Tell me about your Walmart backed $260m debt leveraged buy out, without telling me you were bought out.
Turnover dropped
Quality dropped
Making a loss
Wonder why 🤔

A big delivery of Rapha arrived today and I'm looking forward to trying it.

I used to buy Rapha about ten years ago but moved over to Castelli. Frankly Castelli stuff has proven to be absolutely shite ( other than their perfetto jacket ) everything has failed in a very short time and their customer services team have been completely useless.

Yes it's expensive, but most "premium" brands have increased their prices to match, or exceed Rapha, so I don't think their an outlier in the market.

jerseys are a bit bland, but not everyone wants mad stuff. I tend to be stolen goat on the top and Rapha on the bottom 😂

Rapha does have extremely good customer services and will go out of their way to help if you have any issues before or after purchase. 

Got a lot of Rapha kit - bibs always fit and comfortable / jerseys always nice. However, they seem to have forgotten who their core base is, most cyclists I know like interesting designs and colourful jerseys. What have Rapha given us this year has been very boring with washed out with extremely inspid colours. That probably explains a bigger reason for the drop in sales. Most people who spend £100-200 on a jersey arent really going to be thinking about the cost of living crisis going on elsewhere.

A case in point is the oilslick jersey which was released recently, sold out in a few days, the bright reds and blue jerseys are sold out. To me this is a prime example of a company telling its clients what they want and not listening to what their client actually wants/buys.

Having been around for 20 years you would think they would have sussed that by now.

And in the vague hope somebody from Rapha actually reads this stuff, then for Gods sake please use models that actually look like they enjoy life and are having fun rather than the non smilers that you currently have on your website, who frankly don't look any cyclist I've ever met.

more ranty than i meant it to be !

How can a company that makes losses 7 year in a row still exist when better companies have folded?

(is it a money laundering operation - Im joking I hope!)

They need to expand their market to the more portly rider community. I would buy their kit but am #toofatforrapha

Yes its expensive no denying that but you used to get some high quality clothing for that. Unfortunately for Rapha lots of other brands now produce equally (arguably better) gear and for less. However I feel their biggest issue in recent years is that its quite frankly boring with the same old tired desgns. 

The quality of their kit has taken a nosedive in recent years which is a shame.

While I'm sure the overall marketplace is a major problem, as it is for everyone, it doesn't help that Rapha charges extortionate amounts for most of its kit. Good quality or not, the price is eye-watering.