Cycle clothing brand Vulpine is "insolvent" and enters administration

Tony Farrelly wrote:

@Fixie Girl

Hi there, 

In case you’re wondering where some of your comments on this story have gone - we’ve deleted them to save you from the real risk of being sued for slander. 

Not sure how it works over there in Portland but over here if you call someone a crook you generally need to be able to back the assertion up with something more than your “Spidey Sense”. 

As for the rumours circulating in Portland - we’ve asked around and they would appear to have no basis in fact.

At least one member of the road.cc team invested money in Vulpine, we’ve been reviewing their kit since they launched, and from time to time they’ve advertised on the site - generally we like their stuff. 

Our hope is that the company will emerge from administration in some form, ideally with all or most of its workforce intact. 

Don’t know how likely that is to happen, but I do know that personal abuse and unfounded rumours from someone who seems to be neither a Vulpine customer, investor or employee is unlikely to do much to help that positive outcome become a reality - the personal abuse bit also breaks our site T&Cs.

Tony,
road.cc editor

Tony - I think you will find that my comments are 100% founded and in no way abusive.  If what we've seen here in the US, via official channels in 2016 and today, were made public...

Perhaps Nick would like to defend himself, perhaps respond on Twitter?  

I feel for the investors and the employees, I really do. It could so easily have been me and I am sure it has effected many of your readers...

Perthaps you should do some digging yourself as this will stand as a cautionary tale for both the cycling industry and unregulated crowdfunding in general.

FG

Tony Farrelly wrote:

If your comments are "100% founded"  back them up with some proof.

Until then…

I would but I am under NDA until the 15th. 

We've been going through all their accts today with a view to purchasing the business. 

Its been audited down to the furniture, the fridge, tents, clothing rails a couple of broken bikes and a turbo trainer. 

If your guy was an investor/shareholder in the US he can ask for these docs.  Is it the same in the UK?

Until Monday...

Tony Farrelly wrote:

I've made a note to get some popcorn in…

It's a horror. Nightmare on Filament Walk part 1..

rusholme ruffian wrote:

fixie girl, Did you come across Mr and Mrs Hussey's newly acquired bespoke bikes during the audit? The blog about them on the Vulpine website (now removed) insinuated that the company had purchased them. I've still got my eye on Nick's - at a fire sale price.

They dont appear in the fixed assets..  That only lists 2 display bikes at a cost of £5K that arent rideable?!

The accts have a lot of undocumented misc costs that could easily cover the cost of the other bikes.

gbzpto wrote:

From nick husseys latest failed crowd funding blurb on this site...

"I’m crazy ambitious, but always the ‘right’ way. A way I can always be proud of what we achieve. Always look back knowing we did our best, and did it as the good guys."

Really !!!!

Worth looking at the recent posts here to understand what "good guys" means...

http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpi...

Paul J wrote:

Does anyone still have a copy of the "magazine" they recently sent out? I was a bit baffled by it when a paper copy came in the door a while ago - "Why are they making a magazine??". Unfortunately I only had a quick glance at it before the wife threw it in the recycling. I'd love to have a read of it now, in light of this.

Baffling indeed, especially with a mailing list of 40,000!

I am speechless, I want to cry and it wasnt even my money...

Sadly someone beat me to my reveal on Monday..

http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/vulpine-illustra...

longhaul.cc wrote:

oh god;

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/tribe-takes-to-crowdcube-for-funding/02...

????

unconstituted wrote:

What is the 200k 'charge' for or is it still unknown?

It was a loan from Plan Finance owned by Ryan Georgiades.. it was made in March 2015 for working capital. So it was odd to us that a further £500k was being raised 6 months later.

Now I have to get some sleep.

Paul J wrote:

How did they manage to get their money out right before insolvency? The other registered charges (HSBC) are still listed 'outstanding'?

Two guess ;o) 

Paul J wrote:

Oh, so his wife was also getting a salary?

I thought only politicians could get away with doing that kind of thing?

What are the facts on the resignation of the board members

Road.cc seems to have published every press release / positive news storey about this company from day 1. Nothing was ever reported on this.

gva wrote:

This is a sad investment story, especially when most of the investors are individuals who invested to support cycling rather than anything else.  Everything I am writing is based on facts and can be verified with public records and I am happy to correct anything proven to be inaccurate.

Nick Hussey:

Nick has a lot to answer for and in what he wrote in investor updates and Crowdcube pitches is clearly detached from reality.  Why and how he mislead investors and public, it doesn't matter, I feel sorry for the investors, his employees and suppliers.  His many absurd mistakes include:

1) Telling investors everything was rosy when it wasn't 

2) Spectacularly missing his targets and promises in almost every way

3) Engaging in nepotism by hiring his wife as GM

4) The true status and length of the Hoy brand was not revealed until very late in the day

5) To try and raise money at an absurd valuation of £6.5m when the company was almost bankrupt

6) Getting rid of everyone that opposed him on the board and engaging in autocratic governance

7) Engaging in vanity projects such as the magazine to 40,000 people and the custom bikes for him and his wife when the company was about to go into administration

 

Crowdcube:

They have a lot to answer for and were very irresponsible: 

1) The most recent fundraising was due to complete in around the time the company filed for administration.  Vulpine was in dire straits financially, days from administration and they wanted ordinary punters to invest at a valuation of £6.5m

2) In the pitch presentation they allowed Vulpine to describe the loan/charge from HSBC as "vote of confidence", "an extremely significant financial health certificate" amongst other things

3) The main pitch had limited financial data especially around liabilities and current cash position which is critical

4) The pitch said in the section why you should invest in Vulpine "Vulpine is on the cusp of achieving break-even after an extremely successful year..." when the reality is they were on the cusp of administration

The previous pitch in 2015

1) No mention of the Hoy brand being finite and a lot of punters really went for Vulpine because Hoy is a real brand name!  Very material information! 

2) The company went on Crowdcube halfway through it's financial year so knew where the numbers were going to be.  They forecasted more than £800,000 of gross profit but ended up with only £170,000 for the whole year...so at the time Vulpine went to market (halfway through the year) they made at most £170,000 of gross profit and had little to no chance of achieving anything like the forecast

I can point out a lot more but there is no point.  My advice on Crowdcube is, DON'T TOUCH WITH BARGE POLE...plenty of better places to put your money and if good causes is your purpose there are plenty of those as well.

I hope no one lost money they can't afford, I would encourage everyone to write to the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman.

Fixie Girl wrote:

I would but I am under NDA until the 15th. 

We've been going through all their accts today with a view to purchasing the business. 

 

i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.

Fixie Girl wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

What is the 200k 'charge' for or is it still unknown?

It was a loan from Plan Finance owned by Ryan Georgiades.. it was made in March 2015 for working capital. So it was odd to us that a further £500k was being raised 6 months later. Now I have to get some sleep.

Director doesn't equal Owner, but I'm sure you know that FG.

I'd assumed that Georgiades was some sort of hedge fundy type manager, and a director of Vulpine to look after investments for *his* clients (I notice all his other companies are investment/insurance companies)

Fixie Girl wrote:

Paul J wrote:

How did they manage to get their money out right before insolvency? The other registered charges (HSBC) are still listed 'outstanding'?

Two guess ;o) 

I once worked in investigation of pyramid schemes, advance fee fraud, etc.

One of the more amusing cases was of a disgruntled gangster 'sending the boys around' to the suspects' house to get his money back. It worked - the couple knew they would come to a sticky end if they didn't produce the cash, sharpish. He was the only one to get his money back too.

gbzpto wrote:

What are the facts on the resignation of the board members Road.cc seems to have published every press release / positive news storey about this company from day 1. Nothing was ever reported on this.

gva wrote:

This is a sad investment story, especially when most of the investors are individuals who invested to support cycling rather than anything else.  Everything I am writing is based on facts and can be verified with public records and I am happy to correct anything proven to be inaccurate.

Nick Hussey:

Nick has a lot to answer for and in what he wrote in investor updates and Crowdcube pitches is clearly detached from reality.  Why and how he mislead investors and public, it doesn't matter, I feel sorry for the investors, his employees and suppliers.  His many absurd mistakes include:

1) Telling investors everything was rosy when it wasn't 

2) Spectacularly missing his targets and promises in almost every way

3) Engaging in nepotism by hiring his wife as GM

4) The true status and length of the Hoy brand was not revealed until very late in the day

5) To try and raise money at an absurd valuation of £6.5m when the company was almost bankrupt

6) Getting rid of everyone that opposed him on the board and engaging in autocratic governance

7) Engaging in vanity projects such as the magazine to 40,000 people and the custom bikes for him and his wife when the company was about to go into administration

 

Crowdcube:

They have a lot to answer for and were very irresponsible: 

1) The most recent fundraising was due to complete in around the time the company filed for administration.  Vulpine was in dire straits financially, days from administration and they wanted ordinary punters to invest at a valuation of £6.5m

2) In the pitch presentation they allowed Vulpine to describe the loan/charge from HSBC as "vote of confidence", "an extremely significant financial health certificate" amongst other things

3) The main pitch had limited financial data especially around liabilities and current cash position which is critical

4) The pitch said in the section why you should invest in Vulpine "Vulpine is on the cusp of achieving break-even after an extremely successful year..." when the reality is they were on the cusp of administration

The previous pitch in 2015

1) No mention of the Hoy brand being finite and a lot of punters really went for Vulpine because Hoy is a real brand name!  Very material information! 

2) The company went on Crowdcube halfway through it's financial year so knew where the numbers were going to be.  They forecasted more than £800,000 of gross profit but ended up with only £170,000 for the whole year...so at the time Vulpine went to market (halfway through the year) they made at most £170,000 of gross profit and had little to no chance of achieving anything like the forecast

I can point out a lot more but there is no point.  My advice on Crowdcube is, DON'T TOUCH WITH BARGE POLE...plenty of better places to put your money and if good causes is your purpose there are plenty of those as well.

I hope no one lost money they can't afford, I would encourage everyone to write to the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman.

The board resignations are mostly speculation which is what it is.  I am hoping to administrators come up with a definitive answer.  From what I heard it sounds like the board had a lot of disagreements with Nick who despite being a minority shareholder wrestled control...The resignations were done in sync and were a sign that they didn't believe the company would survive.

The Georgiades brothers are cycling fans and legitimate businessmen who run a family insurance business as well as yellow jersey insurance.  They invested early and funded the company via equity and loans...Theyve lost money here as well.

Ed Matthews is a well known investment banker and cycling fan, there were references on CrowdCube funding discussion board where nick referred to their disagreements and even insinuated a potential investor who has the same first name as his wife of smearing.

rjfrussell wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

I would but I am under NDA until the 15th. 

We've been going through all their accts today with a view to purchasing the business. 

 

 

i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.

We were serious enough to request the documentation from the Administrators but won't be going forward. We are still under NDA however.

The current management have come in for plenty of worse criticism from
http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpi...

They called this back in 2015. If the cycling trade press/crowdcube did their due diligence then Vulpine would likely still be a small thriving business and 588 potential investors would not have lost £1m.

brooksby wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

What is the 200k 'charge' for or is it still unknown?

It was a loan from Plan Finance owned by Ryan Georgiades.. it was made in March 2015 for working capital. So it was odd to us that a further £500k was being raised 6 months later. Now I have to get some sleep.

Director doesn't equal Owner, but I'm sure you know that FG.

I'd assumed that Georgiades was some sort of hedge fundy type manager, and a director of Vulpine to look after investments for *his* clients (I notice all his other companies are investment/insurance companies)

It does @brooksby when the staff comprises of Ryan and his brother Scott who are sole shareholders.

Fixie Girl wrote:

rjfrussell wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

I would but I am under NDA until the 15th. 

We've been going through all their accts today with a view to purchasing the business. 

 

 

i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.

We were serious enough to request the documentation from the Administrators but won't be going forward. We are still under NDA however. The current management have come in for plenty of worse criticism from http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpi... They called this back in 2015. If the cycling trade press/crowdcube did their due diligence then Vulpine would likely still be a small thriving business and 588 potential investors would not have lost £1m.

Sheesh, but those blog entries are pretty scathing. Are they accurate?

Fixie Girl wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

What is the 200k 'charge' for or is it still unknown?

It was a loan from Plan Finance owned by Ryan Georgiades.. it was made in March 2015 for working capital. So it was odd to us that a further £500k was being raised 6 months later. Now I have to get some sleep.

Director doesn't equal Owner, but I'm sure you know that FG.

I'd assumed that Georgiades was some sort of hedge fundy type manager, and a director of Vulpine to look after investments for *his* clients (I notice all his other companies are investment/insurance companies)

It does @brooksby when the staff comprises of Ryan and his brother Scott who are sole shareholders.

Sorry, FG, didn't look at their companies that closely.  I guess it still raises issues about making some decision wearing a 'director' hat and others wearing a 'shareholder' hat, though.

On the original Vulpine issue, I note that Mr Hussey said that a decision of the 'A' shareholders was made to put the company into administration...  I appreciate that they are non-voting, but isn't best practice to get 'class consent' from the 'B'/investor shareholders where something like this is going to seriously detrimentally affect them?   Maybe Mr H was worried that they'd reject administration and go for full-on liquidation in an attempt to get their money back...  Hypothetically, of course (sorry, road.cc sysadmins ).

brooksby wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

rjfrussell wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

I would but I am under NDA until the 15th. 

We've been going through all their accts today with a view to purchasing the business. 

 

 

i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.

We were serious enough to request the documentation from the Administrators but won't be going forward. We are still under NDA however. The current management have come in for plenty of worse criticism from http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpi... They called this back in 2015. If the cycling trade press/crowdcube did their due diligence then Vulpine would likely still be a small thriving business and 588 potential investors would not have lost £1m.

Sheesh, but those blog entries are pretty scathing. Are they accurate?

Yes, very.

brooksby wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

rjfrussell wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

I would but I am under NDA until the 15th. 

We've been going through all their accts today with a view to purchasing the business. 

 

 

i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.

We were serious enough to request the documentation from the Administrators but won't be going forward. We are still under NDA however. The current management have come in for plenty of worse criticism from http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpi... They called this back in 2015. If the cycling trade press/crowdcube did their due diligence then Vulpine would likely still be a small thriving business and 588 potential investors would not have lost £1m.

Sheesh, but those blog entries are pretty scathing. Are they accurate?

Yes, very.

Fixie Girl wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

rjfrussell wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

I would but I am under NDA until the 15th. 

We've been going through all their accts today with a view to purchasing the business. 

 

 

i have some difficulty in believing that someone seriously considering buying the business would, at this moment in time, be spending time trash-talking the former management on a BB.

We were serious enough to request the documentation from the Administrators but won't be going forward. We are still under NDA however. The current management have come in for plenty of worse criticism from http://fantasyequitycrowdfunding.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/crowdcubes-vulpi... They called this back in 2015. If the cycling trade press/crowdcube did their due diligence then Vulpine would likely still be a small thriving business and 588 potential investors would not have lost £1m.

Sheesh, but those blog entries are pretty scathing. Are they accurate?

Yes, very.

Wow! They spent £10K on 2 bikes for personal use (out of investors' money) when they knew the business was struggling? Any sympathy I might have had has completely vanished.

Fixie Girl wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

What is the 200k 'charge' for or is it still unknown?

It was a loan from Plan Finance owned by Ryan Georgiades.. it was made in March 2015 for working capital. So it was odd to us that a further £500k was being raised 6 months later. Now I have to get some sleep.

From my limited knowledge I understand that creditors (i.e. When people loan a company money) get their money back first before investors etc. So it is not untoward that this was paid back while the company was being wound up.

Well said. Who in their right mind would go and buy 2 new expensive bikes knowing the precarious position of their business.

Sorry to hear you lost your money on this.

I must also state that road.cc has always given them a disproportionate amount of coverage compared to other new cycling businesses out there. Always seemed a little strange to me.

rusholme ruffian wrote:

I'm one of the unfortunate 588 investors in Vulpine.

I would vent my spleen on the investors forum but Nick Hussey had that shut down on Friday afternoon so I've got to do it here - I hope he's reading.

He may have created nice gear and have been passionate about his product, and cycling in general , but I feel that he's not been quite as honest and transparent as he would have us believe.

He's taken less than two years to squander the money I gave him during the first round of crowd funding and he then had the nerve to come to me again to ask for more with exactly the same pitch as the first time - Adidas and Nike are knocking at the door, in five years time we'll all be cycle clothing fat cats.  Whilst telling me this he knows that the company is going down the tubes.

Just a couple of months ago the company celebrated it's fifth birthday and Mr and Mrs Hussey rewarded themselves with two bespoke bicycles, some of which was paid for by me and the other 587. Can I have yours Nick? It won't cover my lost investment but it would make me feel better.

Rant over.

 

longhaul.cc wrote:

the bikes in question can be viewed here;

also the mag,

https://www.vulpine.cc/uk/vulpine-is-five

That link would've made me want to vomit BEFORE I'd known about the insolvency. What is it with cycling that attracts such pseud wankers...

longhaul.cc wrote:

oh god;

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/tribe-takes-to-crowdcube-for-funding/02...

Never heard of them until now. Wanky nonsense. Trying to take supplements into the subscription market. 

https://wearetribe.co

Good luck sinking a mill into that. 

Tony Farrelly wrote:

I've made a note to get some popcorn in…

Did you get the popcorn in Tony? I got beaten to the scoop.. 

Catch you later...  I need my beauty sleep!

Seems a shame to let all that research go to waste though  

Tony Farrelly wrote:

@Fixie Girl

Hi there, 

In case you’re wondering where some of your comments on this story have gone - we’ve deleted them to save you from the real risk of being sued for slander. 

Not sure how it works over there in Portland but over here if you call someone a crook you generally need to be able to back the assertion up with something more than your “Spidey Sense”. 

As for the rumours circulating in Portland - we’ve asked around and they would appear to have no basis in fact.

At least one member of the road.cc team invested money in Vulpine, we’ve been reviewing their kit since they launched, and from time to time they’ve advertised on the site - generally we like their stuff. 

Our hope is that the company will emerge from administration in some form, ideally with all or most of its workforce intact. 

Don’t know how likely that is to happen, but I do know that personal abuse and unfounded rumours from someone who seems to be neither a Vulpine customer, investor or employee is unlikely to do much to help that positive outcome become a reality - the personal abuse bit also breaks our site T&Cs.

Tony,
road.cc editor

Well said.....

I too invested a fair bit of cash into this project & truly believed in the brand

I feel a bit mis led if im honest as not at any given time were there any warnings of this & indeed when the 2nd approach for funding came i 'almost' invested further on the basis of the 'good news' that was coming from the camp on the side of successful sales etc etc

 If i had invested further i would be mighty pee'd off right now

As it is i knew the risks & lost, but given the news we as shareholders were being given this doesnt sound right

I feel like ive walked up to someone, given them a load of cash & a year later theyve said sorry fella, tough luck it didnt work out when all the while we were hearing the exact opposite....

rusholme ruffian wrote:

I'm one of the unfortunate 588 investors in Vulpine.

I would vent my spleen on the investors forum but Nick Hussey had that shut down on Friday afternoon so I've got to do it here - I hope he's reading.

He may have created nice gear and have been passionate about his product, and cycling in general , but I feel that he's not been quite as honest and transparent as he would have us believe.

He's taken less than two years to squander the money I gave him during the first round of crowd funding and he then had the nerve to come to me again to ask for more with exactly the same pitch as the first time - Adidas and Nike are knocking at the door, in five years time we'll all be cycle clothing fat cats.  Whilst telling me this he knows that the company is going down the tubes.

Just a couple of months ago the company celebrated it's fifth birthday and Mr and Mrs Hussey rewarded themselves with two bespoke bicycles, some of which was paid for by me and the other 587. Can I have yours Nick? It won't cover my lost investment but it would make me feel better.

Rant over.