Ribble reportedly being prepared for sale by private equity owners

Not really - it's taken from their statement of accounts, where it's usual to keep the presentation of numbers consistent, to help keep them readable and comparable. Since the majority of the numbers are in the order of £millions, it makes sense to use that throughout. It's only reading it out of its original context that makes it look odd.

They did that a few years ago (2017) and then stopped after a year. It looked sort of average but if you didn't own a Ribble it was maybe out of place?

https://road.cc/content/tech-news/225975-ribble-launch-new-clothing-range

Ta. They certainly used to do a much bigger range of stuff generally. When I bought my bike I realised I already had an account having bought panniers back in 2016. Now it just seems to be specific spares for their bikes, some cheap lights and locks and a few random things from Restrap.

I saw plenty of adverts, but I'm not their target market because I bought a fairlight this year so not buying anymore bicycles for a long time.

Big business isn't just about profits, and there will be an awful lot of cost rises to fund their expansion, with the idea presumably to make the business bigger and then gain bigger profits when the one off costs (I.e. opening a store) don't recur. 
 

invesment firms often take a 3-5 year horizon and effectively buy in and then get it ready for sale later so doubling the size will make it more valuable, despite lack of profitability.

Freddy56 wrote:

Double turnover but made a loss.

Only on net profit.  Gross profit was ~6m which isnt bad on 18m turn over.  (30% gross profit margin).  The literal million dollar question is what took 6m of gross profit down to less than zero, was it just business as usual items or any UXB's or massive debt servicing and the like.

Staff costs up a £1m as were distribution costs. Carrying almost £6m in stock. Don't see about capital investment and not much R&D. Should smash the doors in this FY.

Don't these private equity vampires load up companies with all sorts of debt, which then gets repaid out to other companies owned by them so that on paper its making a loss.  Asset stripping, by any other name?

Thats one model yes.  Bearing in mind debt servicing itself isnt a bad thing - its the purpose for which the debt was acquired.  90% for purchase price and 10% inward investment wouldnt be great.  50/50 however might be reasonable if the company involved had no other investment sources.

Freddy56 wrote:

Double turnover but made a loss. I just don't understand big business. Are the owners getting rid of it because in the bussiest year ever for the cycle trade with  lockdown and they didn't make a profit?

"Ribble range primarily through digital marketing channels"

yet I didnt see any adverts and I'm the target market. 

Did anyone see a ribble advert?

I don't know if this was the case with Ribble, but it's pretty common for private equity firms to use debt to buy a company and then put that debt on the company's balance sheet (see here)*. So a company could be highly profitable and still make a loss by paying off debt.

I've seen plenty of Ribble adverts on Facebook, planning to order a Gravel bike as soon as I can get my Bike 2 Work paperwork sorted out.

That’s true, but debt servicing shouldn’t cause an operating loss as it would normally be below the OP line. The article says it’s down to the expansion which isn’t surprising, you incur a whole load of costs getting your new facilities up and running and it takes time for them to build up a customer base to make big sales.

Not sure if the costs would have been covered by Ribble or the shoping centre owners but the Birmingham Shop had to be moved to a whole different level due to the ground floor section being converted into short term office / meeting spaces. 

From Ribble? Hopefully the Bike 2 Work repayments don't start until you actually recieve the kit otherwise you might have already paid it off before you actually ride it. 

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

From Ribble? Hopefully the Bike 2 Work repayments don't start until you actually recieve the kit otherwise you might have already paid it off before you actually ride it. 

According to their website, the payback from your salary doesn't start until they deliver the bike.  (It's also the same for repayments from their interest free credit - I think it's only if you pay cash that you pay upfront.)

The other worry is he might have had two different employers before he got the bike as well.

Just bear in mind that if the bike develops a fault after you have taken delivery, even if you have only owned it for an hour, Ribble will not sort it out. They will merely tell you to take it to your local bike shop to be fixed. Once you take delivery of a Ribble bike, it seems they wash their hands of you.

biker phil wrote:

Just bear in mind that if the bike develops a fault after you have taken delivery, even if you have only owned it for an hour, Ribble will not sort it out. They will merely tell you to take it to your local bike shop to be fixed. Once you take delivery of a Ribble bike, it seems they wash their hands of you.

 

Not actually my experience - there was a problem with one of the threads on the stem on my bike, and they sent me a replacement.  The bike also came with the wrong mudguards - they sent replacements and (and this is where the local bike shop might have come in) offered to recompense me the cost of my LBS fitting them (I did it myself so it didn't come to that).