Life getting tough for Endura ?

Having looked in a little bit of depth at their published counts, a few things strike me wearing my hat as Chartered Accountant and former Finance Director.

Turnover has dropped from £40m to £28m but their cost of sales has gone up from £22m to nearly £25m. This is a double whammy – higher production costs but massively reduced turnover. I wonder how much of the drop in turnover is demand led and how much is discounting?

The accounts are not a like for like comparator as the latest set of figures are for 13 months compared to 12. That is somewhat unusual and I would question why this has been done.

Distribution costs have nearly halved which is suggestive that stock is simply not shifting like it did the previous year or they have undergone a major overhaul of distribution channels. I would suspect the former given the decline in sales income.

Admin expenses are nearly £17m and have gone up in the period under review. Of this, nearly £6m is staff costs recharged from their owner, Pentland Group.

If they were a stand alone business and not funded by Pentland Group, I would be concerned about their ability to continue to operate. A repeat year like the current one could wipe them out financially. They have some £20m tied up in stock but with the decline in sales revenue, this may not be easy to shift if they need to generate cash quickly to pay off their creditors.

Pentland are extremely profitable and will no doubt prop up the business for the foreseeable future but longer term, I would be concerned about how long that support would continue. If I was the FD, I would be looking to see how best to realise the stock holding to generate cash and how to drive down production and admin costs. Long term, as things stand, Endura are reliant upon their shareholder for capital support and the auditors have explicitly identified this as a principal risk. Fundamentally, they need to have a robust recovery strategy and plan in place as more of the same is unsustainable. As Chain Reaction and Wiggle demonstrated, everything is fine and you can rely on your benevolent financier right up until the point at which you cannot.

Hope this is of help?

Cheers

Sanny

Another ex-Endura buyer here.

Their sizing is all over the shop and customer service difficult at best.

I had an MT500 jacket that lasted about 6 months before the chest pocket seperated from the body of the jacket and the waterproof coating started to flake and peel off the inside of the hood. Endura repaired it but it failed again within weeks. They refused to replace or refund it but gave me a discount on a new jacket. That took months to resolve, during which time I bought a HOPE/Endura Singletrack jacket. The waterproof coating has also started to peel off in the neck and hood area in that jacket as well.

I’m not willing to spend more money on kit that doesn’t work/last a reasonable time.

Hope this is of help?

very nicely explained, thanks.

I think their products have been declining too, and getting pretty zany with the colours schemes at times. They used to be so dependable but my choice is now Altura, better made and cheaper.

Their products are poor quality and with random sizing – even if you buy two of the same thing.

And don’t start me on the photochromic sunglasses which weren’t (permanent black tint): I was told to go away by customer disservice when I complained.

Life is too short to use crap kit.

They used to be so dependable

Some of my best kit was Endura – but that was 20-odd years ago. The waterproof shorts I had were brilliant, their first gen Stealth softshell the same.

But now the sizing is random, the quality has dropped…

 my son’s kit the Exeter Uni MTB club had made a couple of years ago is class.

Exeter had some great kit – I remember at a Student MTB Champs they had a grey kit with:

eXeTeR

Apparently Shimano told them to cease and desist that one! Looked very smart though. 🙂

I must have been on this forum about 15 years, and it feels like people have been saying Endura kit isn’t what it used to be (quality, sizing, poor customer service) the whole while.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not right 😀

15 years sounds right. That must be about the time Endura stopped putting magnetic closures in short pockets. All downhill from there…

I worked for Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op back in 2006ish when they first opened in Leeds. For obvious reasons Endura were one of their key, pride of place brands in the store, they had some excellent, high quality, innovative kit that others were not doing, it was incredibly durable, their rep was brilliant and used to visit the store to give us all the latest info and sales stuff, it lasted forever and we could sell it all day long from its reputation.

Come 2024 and I’ve flirted with various bits of Endura kit over the past few years hoping to find the qualities that I rembered from then, but unfortunately just had generic, mis-shaped or mis-sized, overpriced tat that falls apart.  Seam taping on jackets and shorts in particular seems to last a few weeks at best – in fact, I’m pretty sure I have some Endura pieces bought using my bike shop wage in 2006/7 that is currently in better condition than kit bought it the past year or two.

Genrally, just dissapointed.

Decathlon stuff is way better made for half the price.

All downhill from there…

In the context of a bike forum that’s often a positive.

I like Endura kit, I’ve commented before that I prefer some older styles but have been impressed with recent MT500 and Singletrack pieces. The sizing is inconsistent but kind of predictable – race-style gear uses a smaller cm than general all-day riding stuff. I’ve found Madison sizing to be considerably further off the mark.

I find their gloves fall apart at the wrists but remain perfectly useable (with a bit of sewing) – whereas other brands (661 particularly) break or wear at the finger ends and become useless.

If anyone has any lightly used Zyme 3/4 in a medium, do please pass them on! My favourite commute/work legwear for six months of the year.

I’m liking my much newer MT500 waterproof jacket but it’s too hot unless the weather is really bad.

The sizing does seem all over the place (but they’re not alone with that!)

I really like their kit, it’s my go to. I had a few issues with their gloves splitting at the seams and the fingertips wearning out about a decade ago and gave up on them but had the same problems with all other brands I tried. I just order larger gloves now- problem solved. Their shorts and trousers are consistantly a perfect fit for me as are their tops. I recently bought the MT500 waterproof jacket and it seems to be well designed, manufactured and the fit is spot on. Similar tops from other manufacturers exist I’m sure but I’ve had a whole range of problems with zips, stitching, delamination and more with e.g. Altura and TLD that I’ve not had with Endura. It could be that I’ve been lucky with Endura, but all my mates seem to have dodged the same bullet too. Good kit in my view.

Endura should definitely start making Zyme 3/4 lengths again.

How did they handle your warranty claim?

@chakaping – I did contact them but they wouldn’t deal with me (direct) and said I had to return through the reseller – as this was CRC I saw little point in pursuing so wrote them off as a bad punt. I wouldn’t want them replaced anyway TBH.

I’ve been using Endura kit for I guess about 20 something years, but I’m sure the quality went very patchy when their manufacturing went offshore. (I too still have a pair of the nigh on indestructible winter bib longs with waterproof shin panel). I still like some of their kit and wear it, but after my exasperation with their useless warranty department (also offshored), I’m very reluctant to buy any more Endura waterproofs.

(The seat area on my £160 MT500 waterproof trousers delaminated after about 2 to 3 hours riding in Scottish rain…and it wasn’t even that muddy! My previous pair had lasted two winters worth of riding).

From reading others comments above, I think I’ll be sticking with other brands from now on.

Don’t know about the overall financial picture, but been given a little insight about actual sales from someone who ought to know. While Europe and USA sales are not overly healthy, they are apparently still shifting units in the UK.