Planet X N̶o̶t̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶I̶n̶t̶e̶n̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶d̶m̶i̶n̶i̶s̶t̶r̶a̶t̶o̶r̶ sold - June 2023

Weren't there rumours that Ribble wasn't doing too great either?

heard on a ride last night from someone 'in the biz' that sigma are struggling a bit atm too

Planet BreXit

Thread titles is misleading; Planet X is not in administration.

@hippy ?

Sigmas struggle since late 2021, they have a lots of stuff but unable to shift them resulting in massive discount on their product.

B2B/online retailers is the who’s currently taking the brunt of our government’s action (and inaction).

Brommers post in the other Planet X thread looks like they are going into administration.

Companies
Application - Notice of Intention to appoint an administrator

https://caseboard.io/cases/7c9cda66-5c6e-42bc-ac84-06b024a9216f

I mean, newspaper headlines are never accurate, they're just designed to draw you in. I've replaced it with the official wording though.

https://www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/articles/insolvency/what-is-a-notice-of-intent

IANAL so this should do for now.

In their most recent accounts; filled up to Aug '22, the directors (not the auditors, as originally posted) state they are confident Ribble will be a going concern for the following 12 months.

Turbulent times for the trade, according to these Cycling Weakly stories. Both in Feb https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/bike-sales-drop-to-lowest-levels-in-two-decades-says-industry-report and https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/2023-set-to-be-year-of-bike-bargains-according-to-retailers Covid created some very unusual patterns. Must be hard to adapt if you've been running your business a certain way for x years.

Must be hard to adapt if you've been running your business a certain way for x years.

It feels like people assumed the gravy train would carry on forever. Kind of like all the bike shops that went to the wall after the Olympic/Wiggo boom faded.

Must be so hard to keep your cashflow viable when world events make your stock predictions such a lottery. Plus the tories undermining UK spending and interest rates and imports. What a time to be in retail.

https://road.cc/content/news/future-planet-x-secured-cycling-retailer-sold-301801

"Following a seven week sales process that generated significant trade and financial investor interest, the business and assets were sold via a pre-pack transaction to Winlong Garments Limited."

-

"All of the Company’s 33 employees have transferred to the purchaser as part of the sale."

https://www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/pre-pack-administration

The steps involved in a pre-pack administration

1. A company is under pressure from creditors and is threatened with receivership or liquidation.

2. A firm of licensed insolvency practitioners is contacted to discuss the situation. They perform a business assessment and provide a range of possible options.

3. If pre-pack administration is decided upon, the IP values company assets and prepares a Statement of Affairs. Begbies Traynor are licensed insolvency practitioners with offices nationwide – we offer advice and support to companies in distress.

4. If business assets are to be sold to an existing company, steps will be taken to ensure the buyer has the necessary funds. This includes the provision of management accounts and other information to the IP.

5. If the intention is to transfer the assets to a new company, or ‘newco,’ cash flow, profit and loss, and balance sheet forecasts should be provided to demonstrate the viability of the new company, and their ability to purchase the assets. Assistance to buy in the form of asset-based lending may be available.

6. The company is placed into administration, suspending all legal actions against them, and assets are sold immediately.

7. The administrator organises a creditors’ meeting during which an explanation for taking this insolvency route is provided, and at this stage, a recommendation for liquidating the company is often given.

8. The IP repays creditors pro-rata, with funds received from the liquidated assets.

I imagine the whole thing is rather damaging to the relationships you have with suppliers. After all, they will have lost money to this affair. Would they opt to start their business relationship all over again? 🤔

Looks like the new owner Jas Singh has experience in fashion but not in bikes. https://baajcapital.co.uk/investment-portfolio/ I hope he can make a go of it. Is it a bad sign that nobody in the bike trade wanted to buy the company?

What would they want it for?

They specialize in business to business and business to consumer selling, also with their own warehouse packing system.

Perhaps there's a misunderstanding going on here...

Anyway, they say there was significant interest, so I assume the trade was out-bid. Additionally, as has been seen with Evans, probably PX will be very different going forward. It is the way it is, the jobs have been preserved, credit to the buyer for taking on the financial risk.

Yeah, thank god for vulture capitalism.

I wasn't making a point one way or the other regarding capitalism. Please stay on-topic.

It is the way it is, the jobs have been preserved, credit to the buyer.

I have edited my post so it should be clear what I mean. The alternative is that the jobs disappear, no wider point is being made.

I hope the new owner gives an interview. It would be interesting to hear how the bike trade compares to the rag trade and where he thinks he can make his margins. If his clothing fulfilment operation is huge, perhaps Planet X business can be added with hardly any overhead?

There's always been a fair amount of rag trade from planet X.

It’s nothing new, CEOs for examples tend to switch between industries without needing to be “into” it.

For some reason I’ve just got this through the post

1 Attachment

are you waiting for an order from them?

Same here.

I'm not owed anything from them. And the name they have on file for me is maybe 8 years out of date.