Looks like Saddleback joins an ever increasing list of casualties of the economic situation
Took on distribution of Cannondale and the extra storage units required to hold bike for UK sales. Then PON took Cannondale back in house a year later leaving Saddleback high and dry. Or that's how I read it anyway. Best wishes to all the staff.
Enve going in house can't have helped. Some rather premium brands could be looking for a new distributor
A shame.
Minor player in the UK but retro classic brand KHS have also closed up.
I used to work in a shop that sold KHS. The Marin rep always said it stood for Korean Home Shopping
Sad news about Saddleback though.
That’s a bummer, I used to be on the phone with saddleback b2b all the time in the shop, really decent bunch of folk to deal with.
Minor player in the UK but retro classic brand KHS have also closed up.
Aww man, the 93 Montana Comp was my first true MTB love.
Crap news. luckily i have a stockpile of king, wolftooth and enve to keep me going, but it sucks as they've always been great folks to deal with over the years
Fwiw, I believe that KHS well still operate in their home market. Just the US company closing up. Still, that blue/pink Montana was quite the thing bitd.
My first mountain bike (1990?)was a KHS Montana Comp, rigid, cantis, but opened up a world of adventure with my mate Craig (who’s dad splashed out on the Montana Pro for himself, had manitou shocks and XTR!)
Any chance of a Saddleback fire sale? Wouldn't mind a CK hub tool and some Gold Grease cheap.
Aspire Velotech in the US are also in a questionable state. Their website has been “undergoing update” for weeks. You can’t order anything.
Another ENVE / Chris King supplier.
Bugger, just as I had been considering some Sidi shoes! Size and model I want only available from European stores anyway by the look of it ☹️
Minor player in the UK but retro classic brand KHS have also closed up.
I must admit I was sad to hear about this a few days ago, Montana comp was my first proper mountain bike back in my school days. Loved that bike, got it after the Halfords bike (think it was an Apollo) my parents had bought me for Christmas was nicked and I was allowed to choose its replacement when the insurance paid out. Shame about Saddleback as well
Woah, that sucks!
I had one of my trickstuff maxima callipers replaced under warranty earlier this week… feel lucky it didn’t get stuck in some sort of administration doom spiral!
hopefully they can pull through or the various brands find new homes to avoid any supply issues.
That's a shame about Saddleback and KHS.
My first proper MTB I had a choice between KHS, Al Carter (posh Townsend IIRC) or Muddy Fox. The Muddy Fox was older model on sale and looked it, the Al Carter was a nice Tange Prestige frame IIRC, and the KHS was a nice colour (pink and blue...)... Ened up with the Al Carter for a few years.
Al Carter were always great spec for the money. Ace retro parts donors these days along with the top end Carrera.
The blue/pink KHS were lovely looking things and always reviewed well.
A bit more info on the Saddleback story: https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/south-west/news/41183-jobs-axed-as-premium-cycling-firm-collapses-into-administration-after-rescue-talks-fail
This is really rubbish news. Saddleback have always been great to deal with in my experience. Wearing my Accountant hat, PON pulling the plug on their Cannondale distribution arrangement will not have helped matters given that they were reported to have increased staffing and facilities capacity to deliver on the distribution agreement. ENVE restructuring their European operations will have been another blow.
It sucks for the 42 employees who have been informed that they are all being made redundant.
For customers of Silca, Pivot, Moots, Chris King etc, things will become considerably more challenging in the short term at least with the UK Distributer gone.
Looks like Aspire Velo tech in the States may also be in trouble as they have suspended web orders for the time being.
Not good. ☹️
I’m really sorry to here this, I’ve had some exceptional after sales service from those guys.
where ever they end up working they’ll do well.
all the best guys
Reporting over on Escape Collective notes that a greater amount was paid in dividends last year than the company's posted losses. I might be oversimplifying, but it feels rather like that sort of thing ought not be possible. When a company's responsibility to it's shareholders overrides the viability of the company something has gone badly wrong. See also privatised water, et al.
Gutted to hear this and was trying to get my Cannondale Lefty fork serviced with them as no one else in the country touches them so great timing aaah.. Doesn't sit right yet another bike business with over 20 years has gone bust! so many shops have gone what will be left in 5-10 years?? I doubt they will have any kind of fire sale but I certainly would be interested in anything for my Lefty forks as appears no one can help keep it going at the moment.. spoken to PON, Cannondale and TF tuning
Reporting over on Escape Collective notes that a greater amount was paid in dividends last year than the company's posted losses. I might be oversimplifying, but it feels rather like that sort of thing ought not be possible. When a company's responsibility to it's shareholders overrides the viability of the company something has gone badly wrong. See also privatised water, et al.
This was something I'd heard from a few sources over the last couple of years that there was a bit of an exit strategy happening in the background with funds being removed but it was assumed that was more with the aim to then sell on having cashed out than let the whole thing drop.
@xcstu I believe race ready suspension in the Lakes is doing Lefty servicing but their website is fairly basic so maybe worth a call.
Ya already tried them and they only do the older models 🙁 spoken with Cannondale and they could only recommend their shops in Europe! Ridiculous.. PON aren’t setup for Cannondale bikes yet and TF tuning have the expertise to service but not the parts for the newer forks 🙁
I've got a 2017 Slate with a Lefty Oliver that I'm keen to get it serviced at some point soon so I've been looking for someone myself.
TF tuning or Tweed Valley cycles should be able to help with the older models.. if not you will be in the same boat as me without any support at the moment
I feel for the employees, Taking a quick scooby through the accts shows a business steadily losing sales; 2022 are £27M, in 2023 that's down to £18M and 2024 that's again slipped further to £16M and then £14M in 2025. There's not many businesses that can lose half it's sales in 4 years and survive.
Having the rug pulled after just 15 months of a recovery by PON must have been crushing.
Having the rug pulled after just 15 months of a recovery by PON must have been crushing.
Don't forget that PON bought out CSG a few years ago, made a load of staff redundant, moved the distribution to Europe from the UK, closed down GT and disrupted Cannondale supply so badly that barely anything sold for a few months. Saddleback is the second UK distributor that PON have wrecked since Covid.
Saddleback is the second UK distributor that PON have wrecked since Covid.
If the business model no longer functions...In a world of direct sales, is there a space for the trad distributor/shop model any longer?
There's an interesting comparison with Nike here, who famously (they're now one of those "famous and formally successful business model failure" stories that'll pop up every now and again) abandoned a "sales in shops" model and went down the "direct sales from a website" model. Well, it didn't work out as they planned, and they've seen a reversal of that, after their share price crashed, their shoe lines became stagnant and unpopular. They've ditched their old CEO and are begging shelf space in stores again.
I wonder if the direct to market bike sales model is similarly going to ultimately be a failure for these big brands...
Saddleback is the second UK distributor that PON have wrecked since Covid.
If the business model no longer functions...In a world of direct sales, is there a space for the trad distributor/shop model any longer?
There's an interesting comparison with Nike here, who famously (they're now one of those "famous and formally successful business model failure" stories that'll pop up every now and again) abandoned a "sales in shops" model and went down the "direct sales from a website" model. Well, it didn't work out as they planned, and they've seen a reversal of that, after their share price crashed, their shoe lines became stagnant and unpopular. They've ditched their old CEO and are begging shelf space in stores again.
I wonder if the direct to market bike sales model is similarly going to ultimately be a failure for these big brands...
the irony of the ad that appeared fit me underneath your post…
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I can see why brands are getting rid of distributors and doing more in house....not exactly a booming industry right now. Need to retain margin instead of giving it away to another layer in the chain.
