Profits at the portable bike company Brompton plunged 99% last year as the quirky bike maker warned of a “sad state of affairs” in the industry.
The bike maker faced a £7 million decline in revenues in 2024, while pre-tax profits were almost obliterated, falling from £10.95 million in 2023 to £4,602 last year. The decline in revenues was felt most acutely in continental Europe.
Will Butler-Adams, the CEO of Brompton Bikes, said the group had sold fewer bikes than anticipated amid a surprise downturn in demand following a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The industry is still in turmoil and will not get better this year. It will not be as bad as 2024 but there is still excess stock,” said Butler-Adams, the Guardian reported.
Brompton’s profit this year is the equivalent of the price of its most expensive T Line model. The group became an unlikely success story over the years with its pricey folding bikes, the cheapest of which sets customers back £1,000.
The group’s unique design, which allows customers to fold their bikes to navigate major cities’ public transport networks, became a hit with urban commuters.
It celebrated making its millionth bike in late 2022, and reached a landmark 50,000 sales in one year in 2019.
Speaking to the Telegraph in 2018, Brompton inventor Andrew Ritchie said he had been unconsciously saving up the dividends from Brompton’s financial successes. “In a way I have saved and should get to my grave without undue discomfort,” said Ritchie at the time.
However, the sharp fall in Brompton’s profits in 2024, while dramatic, is not overly surprising.
Several bike companies experienced falling profits in 2024, citing a decline in cycling. Demand jumped during the COVID-19 pandemic, but growth appears to have tailed off as demand patterns returned to normal.
Halfords blamed a decline in cycling for a 25% fall in profits last year as it described struggles in a very challenging industry. Evans Cycles, meanwhile, posted a £22.8 million loss last August, citing supply chain issues in the cycling industry.
Speaking to Cycling Weekly in February last year, Brompton’s Butler-Adams said the group had put projects on hold due to the downturn in the industry.
The group has delayed plans to move to a larger manufacturing facility in Kent and withheld a dividend to shareholders.
“Business is about being agile. It’s about responding to what’s happening on the horizon and being careful, caring for your suppliers and your staff. You can’t just put your head in the sand and plough on regardless,” said Butler-Adams.
In an increasingly familiar tale in the European manufacturing sector, Butler-Adams also warned that Brompton was facing pressure from copycat competitors offering comparable designs at lower prices, something he bemoaned.
“Whenever you innovate you take risks, you get things wrong, and then the moment you finally put it on the market, all of that innovation, all of that risk, someone comes along and says ‘oh, thanks for telling me how to do it, I’m just going to rip you off,’” he told the Telegraph in early 2023.
