Schlechte Nachrichten für Fans der Marke Titus, Fahrer von Titus Bikes und die Mountainbike-Sezene im Allgemeinen: Die Firma Titus wird liquidiert, da sie ihren Zahlungsverpflichtungen nicht mehr nachkommen kann. Das bedeutet das Ende der bekannten Marke und ihrer Fahrräder. Eine Option bleibt, dass jemand die Rechte an der Marke und ihren Technologien erwirbt und eine Neuauflage initiiert, Titus Bikes wird es in der bekannten Form jedoch keinesfalls mehr geben. Das bedeutet auch, dass bisherige Kunden Probleme beim Service und Reklamationen bekommen könnten, was umso trauriger ist, als die Marke Titus weithin für guten Service bekannt gewesen ist.
Die Umstände erläutert der ehemalige Marketing Chef von Titus, Jeff Titone:
„There will be plenty of people out there willing to point the finger and place blame as to who is/was at fault for the demise of Titus. I have my opinions and they are based in more fact than anyone here will ever know. It all boils down to two things. 1) Titus was never properly capitalized and 2) the economy made the high-end mtb market go very soft.
From the beginning Titus never had enough working capital to keep up with its growth. 2004-2007 Titus grew some 35+% year over year with peak sales having been reached in 2007 at more than $5M. However, the business had to rely on banking arrangements that allowed Titus to borrow money against its receivables (i.e. invoiced frames/bikes) for it’s working capital. That model doesn’t really work well in an industry as cyclical as cycling. For example, the Titus cash flow would be at it’s lowest in the 3rd quarter as the summer selling season closed, yet Q3 expenses were the highest of the year b/c of marketing (trade show/new catalog website) and product development costs (new product tooling, etc.). Looking for help to alleviate this roller coaster, Vyatek Sports sold Titus to GAI cycles in March of 2008.
The only problem is that GAI never raised enough capital to buy Titus and make it successful. They saw this high-end, niche company with great historical earnings and figured it could sustain itself based on it’s growth. So much so, they even built quarterly payments to Vyatek Sports from the sale of Titus into the Titus payables.
Well, we all know what happened in the summer and fall of 2008. The worlds economy basically imploded. 2008 Titus sales fell 35% from 2007. Titus was on the ropes. Sadly, the ownership group still thought that 30% growth or better was still possible. Sadly, they were wrong and at the end of ’09 Titus was swimming in extra inventory because actual sales didn’t meet the forecasts and something drastic needed to be done to ensure the survival of the company. That something was the blowout of frames to Jenson. Titus managed to grow 10% over the previous year despite the terrible economic conditions
While that move allowed Titus to continue on into 2010, it also was leading to it’s ultimate demise. Entering 2010 Titus was trying it’s hardest to fix things, but then some frame finishing issues from both the new carbon frames and Sapa aluminum frames cause shipping delays. Even I had to fly to China to correct the paint issues they were having, but it was too late because Titus missed putting new 2010 models on the sales floor until late March. Having missed an inventory turn at retail, the fact fewer dealers wanted to carry Titus because of the Jenson fiasco from the previous year and the general reluctance of retailers to inventory high-end frames and bikes because they didn’t want the exposure was too much for the brand to handle. Without any cash tucked away for a rainy day, this is what you get.“
[Quelle: http://forums.mtbr.com/showpost.php?…8&postcount=79 ]
Nüchterne und ernüchternde Worte zum Ende einer Marke. Dennoch sei darauf hingewiesen, dass die Marke in neuer, schlankerer Form erneut aufgelegt werden könnte. Der Name ist trotz der jetzt bekannten Probleme nie sonderlich schlecht gewesen!
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