Wattbike seeks investment following years of losses and falling sales, but static bike brand insists "significant improvements in financial performance" recently

Static bike maker Wattbike is seeking investment from new backers, the business having been utilising short-term loans amid slumping turnover and significant losses since the pandemic. However, the brand has told us it is optimistic about its future, with "sales up more than 35 per cent year-on-year since September".

A spokesperson for the brand told us that it has always been the intention to "secure long-term funding to support continued growth" and that there has been "significant improvements in financial performance over the past year". 

However, Companies House accounts note turnover plummeted from £32.2m in 2021 to £20.4m in 2022 and £13.6m in 2023, Wattbike posting a loss of £6.3m and £6.6m in 2022 and 2023 respectively. In the most recent of those accounts, the brand highlights the "challenging" post-Covid market following "very strong sales growth" during the pandemic.

> Wattbike releases two new sub-£2k indoor bikes, the Proton and Air, just in time for the off-season

On Friday, The Telegraph reported that the company has been surviving on emergency loans and short-term financing with shareholders offering a £1.1m loan in March 2023 and a further £500,000 last year. The newspaper also reported that its management had convinced the main lender to extend the repayment period on a £3.4m lending facility for a further year. 

This ends at the end of March, talks reportedly ongoing for the deadline to be extended again, something which can be done in monthly increments until the end of June.

However, a spokesperson for the brand was keen to stress that recent financial performance has improved "significantly", with year-on-year sales up by more than a third since September. 

Wattbike said: "As outlined as our intention in our last statutory accounts, we appointed Ashcombe Advisors late last year to secure long-term funding to support continued growth at Wattbike. This has always been part of our strategic planning for 2025, and our existing lending facilities were structured accordingly.  

 "Wattbike has seen significant improvements in financial performance over the past year and which has continued since, with sales up more than 35 per cent year-on-year since the launch in September of our new consumer products targeting the broader health and fitness customer, the Wattbike Proton and Wattbike Air. Just this week, we launched a new commercial product, the Wattbike Air-Pro – a key milestone in expanding our presence in the international gym sector, which is experiencing considerable growth.  

 "We are in active discussions with interested parties as part of the funding process. Our shareholders and lender continue to fully support the business and we remain confident in our long-term growth strategy and in the continuing success of the Wattbike brand."

Wattbike's static trainers have become a regular sight in gyms and at professional sports teams' training grounds and stadiums, the brand supplying bikes to in excess of "1,000 elite sports teams across the globe" and more than 500 Olympic medallists since 2008.

The company says its trainers are used by more than 10,000 professional athletes, all six of the Six Nations rugby squads, and 12 Champions League-winning football teams. When the Wattbike Pro/Trainer was launched in 2008 it was endorsed by British Cycling and Wattbike models have been used by numerous pro cyclists, teams and national squads over the years.

 

 

 

 

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In September the brand released two new sub-£2,000 indoor bikes, the Proton and Air, aimed at indoor cyclists as well as team sports athletes.

> REVIEW: Wattbike Proton

The Proton is for "serious indoor racers and cyclists" at £1,795, while the Air at £1,895 is aimed at athletes on sports teams and the like, more closely resembling Wattbike's original exercise bikes that went into full production 17 years ago.