trouble ahead?

[tinywheels]

Profits down,has the economy caught brompton out?
Has the management overcooked it?
The times they are a changing!

 

[rafiki]

30% more bikes sold but a 49% increase in costs of parts and raw materials.

 

[tinywheels]

new factory!
they need to sell a shed load of product.

 

[Sharky]

Anyone remember the Troubleshooter and Morgan Cars?

https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/march/troubleshooter/

Can't believe it was screened over 30 years ago. But the episode about Morgan Cars just came to me. John Harvey Jones wanted the company to modernise and churn out more and more cars to make a fortune. The company however decided to ignore his advice and stay as a traditional hand building car company with a 4 year waiting list for a new car. They are still thriving.

It sounds like the Brompton company are too greedy and wanted to keep expanding, selling to the high end of the market. If they are now in trouble, perhaps they should have followed the Morgan business plan, keeping small and keep customers wanting their products.

 

[tinywheels]

I don't think they have too much to worry about.
However I think they need to listen to their customers.
Allfine or shimano hub gears, belt drive etc,etc.
Just offer things like this as options, it's common practice in the motor industry to have a range of add ons.
It drives me nuts how they can't or won't see the advantages of this.
Perhaps the cold wind of change will rouse their management out of the torpor they suffer from.

 

[wafter]

Is this speculation or does it have a source? Wouldn't surprise me if they were seeing a downturn tbh; and they'd certainly not be the first..

EDIT:

Yes;

Cycling Weekly
Telegraph (via MSN)

Telegraph item is concerning, suggesting the company are looking to distance themselves from Chinese sources due to growing worries that China will invade Taiwan. If that happens I suspect a lack of supply of parts will be the least of our worries..

 

[Jameshow]

I think they are done well in the circumstances.

They are well placed with a high end product, well liked by so many.

Sadly I think this century will be more turbulent than the latter half of the last one, hopefully not like the first half of the last century...

 

[ExBrit]

I will not, personally, be gloating over an iconic British brand getting into financial difficulty.
However making stuff cheaply abroad and selling it as an iconic British brand will ruin them quicker than anything else I can think of.
No more Barbour.

 

[tinywheels]

I will not, personally, be gloating over an iconic British brand getting into financial difficulty.
However making stuff cheaply abroad and selling it as an iconic British brand will ruin them quicker than anything else I can think of.
No more Barbour.

no ones gloating.
Just observing.
I suggested they join forces with premium manufacturers to offer additional components as options.
I suggest most brompton owners immediately upgrade at least two of the original parts as the bits are low grade.
This isn't rocket science, it's been done for years elsewhere.
Hubris is a terrible thing.
look at the British motorcycle industry.
Bromptons core product is good. Build on it Butler-Adams. Or watch it wither.

 

[rogerzilla]

I believe they are debt-free, so no worries there. They also seem to be able to charge whatever they like (a lot of them will be sold on tick through C2W schemes). So I'd think they're ok.

 

[Fastpedaller]

I suspect many UK companies would like the same financials as Brompton. News trying to make something out of nothing (and CW could do with some proof-reading).
it looks like a sensible plan by WB-A. Very unfortunate the Euro manufacturers aren't what they used to be.
Mentioning the Morgan 'troubleshooter' scenario is pretty meaningless IMHO - It (Morgan's stance) may well have been relevant at the time, but since then they (Morgan) have changed many manufacturing processes, core products and explored a wider customer base.

 

[berlinonaut]

no ones gloating.
Just observing.
I suggested they join forces with premium manufacturers to offer additional components as options.
I suggest most brompton owners immediately upgrade at least two of the original parts as the bits are low grade.
This isn't rocket science, it's been done for years elsewhere.
Hubris is a terrible thing.
look at the British motorcycle industry.
Bromptons core product is good. Build on it Butler-Adams. Or watch it wither.

Oh dear - here we go again. No need to open this can of worms again. You can simply read the last discussion you started about the very same topic with the very same argruments. And maybe you even remember where this discussion went....

I contacted brompton a while ago ref them starting a skunkworks type division. With a remit to produce eye-catching and well engineered kit.
there is a large market for this world wide
Their reply was no need we are doing fine.
meanwhile countless manufacturers churn out bling goodies and better than standard parts.
That new lightweight brompton shows the market is waiting for quality products

oh boy, someone has issues.
when buying bits for your bike it's buyer beware.
However with a bit of research and chatting to your mates, an informed decision can be made.
Meanwhile here on planet earth, if something seems too cheap to be true, it's probably worth giving it a miss.
The brompton is a perfectly acceptable bike out of the box. Some people like to faff about and stick bits on them. Manufacturers know this, hence the aftermarket bits.
Brompton are filling a gap with their new wunderwaffen.
Myself, I think a good product is let down by some cheapy components.
That is what prompted me to write to brompton.
They failed to provide the required bits, so I went elsewhere.

I suspect your wrong.
one of the first things brompton riders do is upgrade the awful little wheels that are fitted for rolling. Swiftly followed by the equally grim folding handles. Plus the nasty grips.
I won't bang on about the other upgrades possible.
So an eight mile a day commute plus regular long distance jaunts don't make a cyclist! OK, I must do better.

"Bromton riders" do that? really? Out of 100 more less actual Bromptons, how many have fitted 3rd party wheels? How many of those who changed them did change them for bigger ones? How many because of better rolling needs? How many because of bling? I suspect a tiny fraction changed and almost none for functional reasons based on own experiences.

As you speak of "awful little wheels": Is it possible that you did not recognize that Brompton has changed the standard roller wheels already back in 2015 - seven years ago? Is it posiible that you did not recognize that since the early 2000s the "easy wheels" were available directly from Brompton as an upgrade? Are you one of those, who, based on 20 year old experiences, today actively talks people into "upgrading to easy wheels" in ignorance that the actual wheels exist in the first hand and - depending on what aspects are important to you - are either better than the easy wheels or at least almost as good?



I do own a bunch of Bromptons. One has folding handles that differ from standard - Eerdermetal ones. They were on the bike when I bought it used (and they are indeed better than factory standard). I do barely see 3rd party handles on the street and the people that have changed to 3rd party handles (apart from the Eerder ones) have done it for the optics - typically they even say they handle worse, but they look better.


That's true.

Would be interesting. I have the suspicion that if back then when approaching Brompton with your idea of a tuning department they may not have liked your attitude and communication style but way more important: What you have in mind may be a market (and Brompton serve it themselves - they do have a small amount of "blingy" upgrade parts including handles since I think last year) but it it not at all relevant for the mission of the company which is about changing urban transport. So maybe you were too early, maybe you were too nasty, maybe your concept was not convincing to them, maybe your vision was not their vision.
If it was such a great idea: Why didn't you start your own business then and produce that kind of stuff? I you were right back then you would be a rich man by now...

 

[berlinonaut]

I will not, personally, be gloating over an iconic British brand getting into financial difficulty.

I would not call a rise in sales of about 25% (69.000 -> 93.000), a rise in turnover of about 30% (GBB 76.000.000 -> GBP 106.000.000) and a profit of GBP 7.300.000 exactly "getting into financial difficulty". Personally, I'd very much prefer to suffer from that amount of difficulty, don't know about you.

However making stuff cheaply abroad and selling it as an iconic British brand will ruin them quicker than anything else I can think of.
No more Barbour.

Fully agreed here.

 

[berlinonaut]

Profits down,has the economy caught brompton out?
Has the management overcooked it?
The times they are a changing!

Has @tinywheels a bit of a limited perspective?

These are Brompton's turnovers and profits, starting in 1988 (when the MK2 was launched) until 2022. Financial year goes from April to March. So the peak in 2021 is basically the bike boom during corona as Brompton's financial year 2021 started in April 20 - pretty much when the bike boom started. Financial year 2022 again ends in March 2022. Judging from our collection of frame-numbers in the German forum Brompton may between April and December 2022 have built very roughly up to around 80.000 bikes.

 

[ExBrit]

I would not call a rise in sales of about 25% (69.000 -> 93.000), a rise in turnover of about 30% (GBB 76.000.000 -> GBP 106.000.000) and a profit of GBP 7.300.000 exactly "getting into financial difficulty". Personally, I'd very much prefer to suffer from that amount of difficulty, don't know about you.

Fully agreed here.

I did not mean to imply I think they are or might get into financial difficulty. I do not. But if they did, I would be sad.