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Bowman Cycles goes into liquidation as a result of industry supply shortages
The cycling industry may be booming but that doesn’t mean it’s all easy business. The pandemic-related industry shortages haven’t been kind to a number of smaller brands, shops and suppliers who have been unable to source stock. And as reported by cyclingindustry.news, the latest example of these struggles is seen with Bowman Cycles (trading as BB Velo Limited), a company that has sadly filed for voluntary liquidation.
Bowman Cycles is a company best known for offering fairly priced aluminium and steel bikes. And many readers sang praise over the UK-based company when the topic of a lack of good quality aluminium bike options was raised.
In late 2021, Road.cc interviewed Bowman Cycles’ managing director Neil Webb about the numerous issues facing the brand. At the time customers were complaining of delays, poorly packed bikes, and a general lack of communication. Webb spoke out about the significant issues the pandemic had caused the small company, and that a lack of product supply was effectively strangling the company.
“We’d put in orders for 1200-1400 frames over the course of 2020 but didn’t see the first of those arrive until May this year (2021),” said Webb in that interview. “There are still 600 frames from that order which haven’t been shipped.”
Lack of parts to build bikes was cited as an even larger issue, while significant increases (and delays) in shipping and materials were also blamed. Webb announced that the company had stopped taking customer orders as of September 2021 as they didn’t believe couldn’t fill them in a timely fashion.
The pandemic has proven a boom for many in the bike industry. Seemingly all the major bicycle and component manufacturers have their production capacities maxed out and many are investing in ways to grow that. In a recent CyclingTips Nerd Alert podcast episode we spoke with SRAM’s CEO Ken Lousberg about the supply shortages. However, despite such industry-wide growth, it’s evident that a number of small players are being squeezed out of the market.
We wish the staff of Bowman Cycles luck during this tough period. This is a developing story that will be updated once we have a statement from the company.
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By: Dave Rome
Title: Bowman Cycles goes into liquidation as a result of industry supply shortages
Sourced From: cyclingtips.com/2022/01/bowman-cycles-goes-into-liquidation-as-a-result-of-industry-supply-shortages/
Published Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:37:39 +0000
