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news
Rapha Clubhouse London (copyright Simon MacMichael)Rapha losses almost double to £22.7m as UK turnover drops 20% amid "challenged" cycling sector, brand's seventh consecutive year in the red
Rapha has reported another significant loss, the figure almost doubling to £22.7m in 2023-24 as the premium cycling clothing brand posted a loss for the seventh consecutive year.
Blaming the ongoing competitiveness and turbulence of the "challenged" post-pandemic cycling industry, Rapha's pre-tax losses deepened from £12m to £22.7m in the year to 28 January 2024.
The clothing brand, which recently celebrated its 20th birthday, also noted the year was impacted by the expensive closure of two regional warehouses and consolidation of stock and operations in a single UK distribution centre, a project that Rapha says "drove an exceptional cost" but has improved supply chain efficiency and removed "significant" overhead from the business.
With that said, in the year to January 2024, turnover was £110m (down seven per cent), pre-tax losses deepened to £22.7m from £12m and post-tax losses more than doubled to £19.6m from £9.6m.
It is the seventh consecutive year in the red for Rapha, its second worst in that time period (only exceeded by £32m in 2019), and also the worst since pandemic-impacted 2020 (£23.5m).
Director Sean Clarke, on behalf of Rapha's board, said the accounts come "against the backdrop of an ongoing turbulent and competitive post-pandemic cycling sector, as well as decreased confidence in several key markets".
"Rapha has continued to strengthen its core business operations, returning to a positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) pre-exceptional items position," he added. "Marketing and product teams remain focused on making the Rapha brand more visible and engaging to cyclists, as well as delivering a steady stream of product innovation to increase customer lifetime value."
Independent auditors reported they "have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group's and the company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months".
Sales in the UK were hardest hit, Rapha almost matching its turnover in Europe and USA/Canada compared with 2022-23.
In the UK, turnover was from £22.3m to £17.7m, a drop of 18 per cent. Elsewhere, turnover in Europe was almost identical to 2022-23 (£30.6m compared with £30.7m), while the USA and Canada's drop in turnover was only down two per cent and remained the business's biggest sector, racking up £34m from sales.
The Rest of the World market saw Rapha's turnover drop to £1.5m from £1.9m.
The year to January 2024 also saw the number of Rapha Cycling Club members fall by nearly 20 per cent, dropping to 18,000, while the number of new online customers was 118,000 in 2023-24, down from 148,000 in 2022-23.
In August, it was revealed that former Ineos Grenadiers boss Fran Millar had joined Rapha as the business's new CEO, replacing Francois Convercey.
Founder Simon Mottram said Millar's appointment "marks a significant milestone" for the company and said her "deep understanding of the cycling industry, combined with her proven track record in leading high-performance teams and brands, positions her uniquely to guide Rapha into its next chapter".
road.cc has contacted Rapha for comment about its accounts for 2023-24.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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54 comments
As a brand they just have that image that you're a bit of a tool .Everyone i know thinks this ,it harks back to being elitists etc .I'll be surprised if they last another year as those losses are unsustainable ,and they started losing 7 years ago .Whoever is running it clearly has no new strategy or anyone willing to speak up about it .This is a stale leadership that causes sustained loss like this
Aren't the owners something to do with Walmart?
Very deep pockets, and a love of cycling. Bikesnob had a great time in the company town.
Losses written off against taxes too?
I think that says as much about an individual's view of their marketing methods as anything. There are 'tools' in all areas of life and I think it's unfair to suggest that they all ride expensive bikes and wear Rapha gear.
It seems that the people with strong (negative) opinions have never been Rapha customers so it's hard to take those kinds of comments seriously. I understand that a brand's image may not be to your liking but that doesn't mean their profitability, or the lack of it, is due to one single factor you dislike.
And people conveniently forget or ignore the huge amount they have put into cycling in one way or another over the years.
On a personal level I don't really care much either way whether one prominent brand succeeds or not; it's a brand, not an entire industry sector. But I can't help feeling that if well known brands like Rapha can't make money from cycling clothing then what hope is there for anyone else? The sorry end of Wiggle/CRC, the closing of race teams like Lifeplus-Wahoo and Ribble Collective (among plenty of others) and the dire situation UK road racing is in as a whole, ITV losing the Tour coverage, Halfords' unsurprising news of poor sales this year... it doesn't paint a very rosy picture for cycling, whether it's commuting and utility riding, watching sport on TV/media or participation.
I gave 4 reasons as to why they are failing ,and when most see it as I do ,like it or not they literally have their own name .Like you they choose to ignore their image ,but poor management is the main reason andxtgeir failure to improve image and is part of it .
Being familiar with some of the senior characters running Rapha since its sale in 2018, there has been a lot of, and still is, a lot mediocrity in senior management. They lost many good people around that time that had a deep passion and connection to the brand and the sale made a lot the senior players a lot of money which robbed some good people of motivations. People like Slate Olson, James Fairbank, Simon Huntsman, Graeme Raeburn where the heart and soul of the brand and they all left. There is no way someone like Francois Convercey should have been running that company and characters like Dan Blumire, Caroline Crosswell et al simply lacked the skill or connection to the brand to push a company like that forward. That combined with the new ownership and a lack of investment in retail stores, the gutting out of the RCC team and a failure to innovate, leaving the door open to other players to take chunks of their customer base has created this scenario. Pas Normal are now more Rapha than Rapha and a much more sensibly run business, MAAP appears young and exciting even though their product is mediocre. Fran Miller is a good appointment, she would be well advised to start firing a few people and bring back some of the old guard who made it what it was...
I think rapha is massively over priced..
Same goes for assos though.
I have quite a few items of rapha gear, the main reason I don't buy more is because the pieces I have still fit and are still in good condition. Well, except for a pair of bibs that had been worn so much that the stitching started to come undone... but I took them along to a free event at their repair centre and they fixed them for me...
I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, and a lot of people here seem to have some ideas about what rapha is/isn't -- I have some criticisms myself -- but when you speak to the people on the ground, I think they're doing a lot of great stuff for the community. For the sake of the people working there and because I will eventually need to buy new bibs one day, I hope they stick around.
Maybe that fashion has finally ran out of steam? Maybe people just don't want to be seen with the label "Rapha" any longer - looking like a cheap copy of the beautiful, classical St. Raphael jersey of Anquetil?
If Rapha want to turn a profit they need to:
- cull some of the categories in the range completely - mainly the "odd" concepts that land up on Sport Pursuit
- review their colour choices. Way too many dull / weird colours that aren't any good for being visible on the road
- get sizing consistent across categories to reduce the level of returns and working capital tied up in inventory
- shut down the Club houses unless they actually generate enough full price sales to cover the bills and staff overheads
I agree with you on the sizing. I don't buy Rapha on line becuase the sizing is difficult to guess. One jacket can be L but then another can be XXL ! It makes no sense. Therefore I will only buy something I can try on, which is not easy either as so few places stock Rapha - or in decent quantities.
Your comment about visibility on the road is silly .It's already proven that clothing choice has 0 effect of being seen .
rapha's too expensive- by far. they dont think they might sell more if they went down to the ballpark price of their competitors ? who's in charge of sales ? Im sure rapha's competitors love him ; but pass when his resume crosses their desk
Always makes me laugh how many 30/40 something 'men' are over-concerned about how they look on a bike, instead of cycling. THIS is what has killed cycling, kids used to just get on bikes and ride. Now it's an arena massaged by the retail business, CONSTANTLY trying to flog gear, very much what Road CC is all about, little to do with actual cycling.
Janet , your comments about 30/40 yr old men is stupid. In my non-cycling life I buy decent clothes to look decent and the same goes whilst cycling. If you like to appear scruffy that's fine. Rapha kit is very well made imho. You buy what you like.
I would say yours is too ,RCC price is rediculous .And wearing any other jersey thats 50% less looks no different .Like all other niche expensive brands its the badge you pay for.Lambo side repeater from lambo is 600 ,3.99 on ebay as its a ford part .You buy what your budget allows ,let's be honest you're not poor if it's a goto brand ,which is also part of their self inflicted problems
Why 'men' in inverted commas? Are you suggesting that they're really women?
Also, has cycling been killed? I see plenty of people out if I go out into the new forest on a dry Saturday or Sunday afternoon, fewer on a wet Wednesday night though.
Cyclists have always been a pretty vain bunch. Just look at pictures of De Vlaeminck or Anquetil or Coppi. Wearing stuff that looks bad or doesn't fit isn't going to make you ride better or faster. That said, I can't imagine I would ever have a need to buy anything from Rapha.
How has cycling been killed when it's more popular now both as a leisure pursuit and means of commuting than it has been at any point in my lifetime? Many middleaged men who ride bikes (and funnily enough middleaged women too) like to look good on their bikes and wear stylish gear, that doesn't actually mean they're not interested in cycling. When I was a kid, forty years ago, yes indeed we got on our bikes and rode but we also liked to have cool cycling clothes if we could get them - the trouble was back then they were harder to come by and more expensive, no Decathlon or similar in those days. Personally I'm not greatly enamoured of the Rapha image and wouldn't spend what they charge for their gear, but the idea that a certain relatively small demographic of cyclists buying expensive jumpers to ride in has "killed cycling" is absolute drivel.
The rather bland design style they have persevered with for many years may not have done them any favours, who's going to pay all that money to look boring? that and the fact that a lot of riders can't afford their prices either.
I think that's their selling point in the UK. Most don't want to look like they're in a Grand Tour when out on a ride.
you know, that has definitely got to be part of the problem in terms of safety- visibility and predictability are perhaps the most crucial elements and their "subdued hues" blending into the background/periferal vison of a driver do nothing to enhance rider safety. be loud and proud- stand out from the crowd; dont lend yourself to the "well, I couldnt see him" excuse
I got rear ended by a driver in a car whilst wearing thier bright, day glo pink Brevet long sleeve. But yeah, safety.
I know ,I'm surprised how many people on here think wearing different colours helps .It was proven a long time ago it dosnt .It's drivers failing to observe ,not looking is tge problem.
So uniform grey kit against a grey background will stand out no worse than grey and fluorescent yellow kit against a grey background? Good to know.
You need to educate yourself on visibility and collisions ,clothing choice has 0 bearing on being hit by a vehicle as a vast majority the driver always says " i didn't see them "
When you're not looking you don't see any colour
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/making-high-vis-compulsor...
their classic designs are arguably their USP, which is fair enough, but you need to offer more than just a basic design with a rapha logo on the sleeve. Its something they used to be able to do, but have struggled to design of late, or monetise properly when they do hit on something popular.
In know the industry (incl LBSs) would like us to buy more kit, but if you buy decent gear and look after it then it usually lasts a long time. Unless something wears out or there's a new product that enhances my gear, then I'm not buying. I'm not in the game of dumping gear off to a charity shop because I'm bored of it; older gear gets worn on the commute. Some of my Rapha gear is years old and still going strong. I've got an older high-viz jersey (not Rapha) that I use for commuting; must be over 10 years old and refuses to die.
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 🤔
This explains it better than I can
https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/17n1zp2/comment/k7r8w5j/?utm...
They have made a "loss" every year since the takeover. Something Todo with the atomised Goodwill write down.
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