Rumors began circulating on Reddit three days ago that YT Industries had moved from bankruptcy to the liquidation phase. This morning, an ambiguous article published by Enduro Mountain Bike Magazine claimed “YT shuts its doors.” However, in a statement to Pinkbike from founder and CEO Markus Flossman, the situation is more complicated.
How did we get here?
In July, YT Industries announced that the company was entering into a “self-administrated legal restructure” after struggling to secure additional funding. The company’s troubles began during the COVID pandemic when, like many bike brands, YT struggled to balance supply and demand.
According to Flossman, “a key supplier failed us with quality issues and delivery delays right when we needed them most,” while simultaneously, “the US market became widely unstable” due to natural disasters and trade policy changes that hurt consumer demand.
These compounding factors ultimately forced YT to file for insolvency, with customers reporting canceled orders, delayed shipments, and being told their payments were now part of the “insolvency estate” with no clear path to refunds.
Most German employees have been laid off
YT spent the last three months trying to secure a new investor, but “unfortunately, the offers we received were an absolute joke and not worth considering,” Pinkbike quotes Flossman as saying. Consequently, he has decided to buy the brand back himself. “The creditors’ committee has already approved my offer, and we are now in the process of finalizing the contracts in order to relaunch the business under the new setup.”
The process is taking some time, and during the transition, the vast majority of the staff at the company’s German headquarters have been laid off “to ensure that no work is performed by employees that the old company would no longer be able to pay for.” A small team will continue to process orders until the ownership transition is complete.
While this massive layoff has severely impacted the German branch of the company, the US branch is unaffected, and business continues as usual.
When will customers get their bikes?
When YT told customers who had purchased bikes that their debt was now a part of the insolvency proceedings, riders understandably flew into a rage, posting angry comments across social media, Reddit, and other mountain biking websites.
One Instagram comment summarized the situation well:
You guys took those orders knowing full and well what was coming, knowing you wouldn’t be able to fulfill them. Not only that, you ran a SALE to garnish more attention for more orders. Was that part of your legal restructuring? Your answers aren’t good enough, you took advantage of customers and damaged consumer trust in not only your own brand but the industry as a whole.
In his statement on Pinkbike, Flossman tried to reassure current and prospective customers, saying, “Every customer order will either be fulfilled (if the bike is in stock) or refunded. To ensure this, I have personally invested a significant amount of private funds. Outstanding orders should be completed within the next 4–6 weeks.”
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