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news
Vulpine founder Nick Hussey.JPGVulpine founder Nick Hussey working with new owners Mango Bikes to ensure smooth transition
Vulpine founder Nick Hussey, who put the business into administration in early May after it ran out of money, will be working with new owners Mango Bikes to ensure a smooth transition, road.cc has learnt.
The Gloucestershire-based bike brand bought the urban cycling clothing business on 26 May, three weeks after Hussey admitted he had been forced to call in the administrators.
Mango Bikes CEO Barry Dunn has taken on the same role at Vulpine, and last week updated the near 600 people who had backed the business during its successful crowdfunding investment drive in late 2015 about the acquisition.
> Mango Bikes updates Vulpine Crowdcube investors after acquisition
Her subsequently confirmed to road.cc that Vulpine founder and former CEO Hussey would be assisting Mango Bikes as the business made the transition to its new ownership, saying he “is involved to help us unravel the complexity of Vulpine.
Dunn continued: “He’ll be around for three or four months to make sure we have the keys for everything where he can. A kind of handover if you can call it that.
“Making contact with all the factories and understanding what's on order which has been hugely important as the last thing we want is to run out of stock.
“There’s also some great new product already developed so it’s important we get hold of that stuff.”
When Mango Bikes confirmed last month that its bid had been the one preferred by Vulpine’s administrators, it said that one of its priorities would be clearing the backlog of orders, refunds and other customer-related issues that had built up during the three weeks when the brand’s future had been in doubt.
> Mango Bikes promises to honour "all orders, refunds and exchanges" after buying Vulpine
“The backlog of orders is clear and we’re on top of customer emails,” Dunn told us. “I was lucky enough to retain a customer service lady from Vulpine and she’s amazing. She had it all under control in a couple of days.”
He said: “I’m blown away by the positive response from the Vulpine customers, people genuinely love Vulpine and the product.
“Even the investor email which is obviously an emotive subject received a majority of positive messages,” he added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- Bigtwin 3 sec ago
Museum thread, but hey. I had one of these, before I saw this review. And it's spot on. The review, not the bike. I put up with it for a couple...
- Simon E 26 min 16 sec ago
The bike industry is not struggling because high-end bikes have £10,000 price tags....
- mattw 37 min 9 sec ago
Signed and promoted in a couple of my networks.
- mattw 46 min 43 sec ago
Trying to work out why I need a £390 3d printed titanium bottle cage....
- wtjs 3 hours 4 min ago
Good point! Over 18 months later, and I haven't seen (could have missed it!) a long term review of this groupset
- wtjs 3 hours 13 min ago
What was supposed to be a 10-minute drive turned into a journey of an hour and 45 minutes The Joy, The Joy!
- unami 3 hours 18 min ago
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/exclusive/365458/driver-whose-towbar-voide......
- Steve K 4 hours 19 min ago
A lake caused by a cycle lane speed hump/raised crossing will be a familiar sight to anyone who commutes on CS7 in London.
- Miller 5 hours 58 min ago
Pogi and a few of the others are on the divisive new Colnago aero bike in those Insta photos.
- chrisonabike 6 hours 29 min ago
I prefer "dressing for the destination" - so if I want woke headgear I'll just put my thinking cap on, thanks.
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18 comments
He's looking very happy with the loot he's showing off in his jacket pocket. Anyone work out what it is?
I'm taking a punt at it being an OPENED bag of limited edition Skittles Sours, bought for USD13,876 at auction in Macau.
anyone know the RAL colour for Nick's teeth in that photo?
Somewhere between 9003 and 9010
I'm more concerned about the state of that jacket, it really doesn't give the correct impression of the CEO of what is/was essentially a fashion brand to be wearing such a baddly ironed jacket.
Its not badly ironed, just a terrible fit. They often stick a suit jacket on someone who doesn't usually wear one, for publicity photos, because it's supposed to make them look smarter... Seriously: who (who is not a top gear presenter) wears a suit jacket over a white tshirt?
It's not a jacket, it's a coat. Potatoes wear jackets. Oh, wait. It might be a jacket then.
Unbelievable...this guys visage will never cease to pop up on Road CC.
Playing the old self promotion game again.
“I was lucky enough to retain a customer service lady from Vulpine and she’s amazing. She had it all under control in a couple of days."
This is why good staff are worth looking after. Too many employers and managers might love their spreadsheets and powerpoints but they know sweet FA about managing the most important resource a company has - the staff.
Good luck to Mango. IMHO Vulpine is a brand worth retaining.
Better to have him on the inside pissing out, rather than the outside pissing in. Regardless of what happened before, I'm sure NH is a guy who wants to see this smoothly through to the end of his involvement now.
Mango have bought a dud. The brand destroyed its finest supporters and squandered a million.
Our money is lost.
By complexity he means bad management and helping yourself.
Logic defeats me. Buy a business that's been ruined by bad management, then employ the guy who ran it?
And I wonder at what remuneration? I'm am sure the shareholders and investors would love to know.
Can't imagine Hustle doing it pro bono!!!
I'd venture something more than symbolic but less than obscene. See, this looks tawdry, but as you might already know, it is usually a win-win. The disgraced CEO usually wants to ingratiate himself with the new owner, mainly, in order to attempt to avoid getting sued. The new owner really needs to maintain some of the know-how and existing relationships to have a better shot of salvaging the company. They're gambling that that is worth a little questionable PR. And iif serious malfeasance is uncovered, the company can sue him anyway.
Seems like an extremely sensible arrangement. Someone one needs to show the new owners how the business runs.
Vulpine's not the first fashion business to have been stuffed by cash flow and stock issues.
Re. the crowdfunding investors - it's their look out if they back a business founded and managed by someone with limited experience operating in a sector where life expectancy can be short.
(duplicate)
Wow: you left comments open on this story? I hope road.cc bought in extra bandwidth...