Dutch bicycle specialist VanMoof temporarily out of danger

After rapid growth, VanMoof has suffered a setback with bicycles of uncertain reliability. New capital injections are expected to allow the brand to make a comeback.

For a long time, we believed in a Dutch success story. Known for its high-end bikes at quite competitive prices, VanMoof was doing well. The company opened stores in major European cities, as well as in New York and Tokyo. As a result, VanMoof’s revenue grew from 10 million euros in 2017 to 83 million euros in 2021. A spectacular increase that, unfortunately, did not last long because the 2022 fiscal year ended with a loss of 78 million euros!

This turnaround can be explained by a difficult recovery after the COVID period. After very high sales figures (many workers abandoning public transportation for cycling), demand then plummeted sharply, and the company found itself with a large stock of unsold bikes. Additionally, the cost to sell a VanMoof bike is higher than the purchase price, resulting in a gross margin loss of 11.9 million euros.

Reliability Not at the Top

Furthermore, after-sales customer feedback highlighted a lack of reliability in some models, and more troublingly, since the components used by VanMoof are not “generic”, customers must go to an authorized center to repair their bike. VanMoof spent 8 million euros on after-sales service in 2021.

However, this troubled period is expected to see some improvement. VanMoof has called on its shareholders to inject new capital. Some, like Balderton and Hillhouse, responded positively and are likely to help VanMoof relaunch itself.

Source: fd.nl

Also read: Vanmoof S3: significant discounts on electric bikes in the last days of 2022!