IN BRIEF
Three weeks after Cycles Lapierre was placed in judicial reorganisation by the Dijon commercial court on 25 August, Gilles Lapierre has broken his silence. The former managing director and grandson of founder Gaston Lapierre defends his record and believes everyone is entitled to ask questions about the decisions taken since he left. Above all, he says he is ready to support whichever plan is best placed to preserve the business and its jobs. The procedure opens a six-month observation period for a company that employs 106 people and posted revenue of €99.1 million in 2025.
Gilles Lapierre’s silence lasted three weeks — the time between Cycles Lapierre being placed in judicial reorganisation by the Dijon commercial court on 25 August and his public statement, reported on 16 September.
What the court decided on 25 August
Cycles Lapierre filed its application on 5 August 2026 with the Dijon commercial court, which opened the procedure on 25 August. This is a judicial reorganisation — France’s court-supervised restructuring procedure — which “is not a liquidation”, the local press points out, but a protective framework for continuing to trade while clearing the liabilities.
The decision opens a six-month observation period to continue trading, maintain employment and prepare for the future — which is what management had come to seek: “The court’s decision gives us exactly what we came to ask for: the possibility and the time to fight,” said William Perrier, managing director of Cycles Lapierre, at the time.
Gilles Lapierre defends his record at Cycles Lapierre
Gilles Lapierre has not been at the helm for a long time: having left for a role at Accell Group level, he departed the group for good at the end of 2022. Bike Europe describes him as the former managing director of Cycles Lapierre, and notes that he is speaking about the company founded by his grandfather, Gaston Lapierre.
His statement begins with the support he has received: “Since the announcement that the company I ran with commitment and success for several years has been placed in judicial reorganisation, I have received a very large number of messages of support, testimonials and reactions.” From it he draws a reading of what the firm was: “a human adventure, a collective project”.
Then comes the most closely scrutinised passage: “We had achieved results that we could legitimately be proud of, and we had built foundations that made it possible to look to the future with ambition. The current situation is therefore obviously painful to see. With no wish to stir up personal controversy, everyone is entitled to ask questions about the path taken since my departure and about the decisions that led to the situation the company finds itself in today”. The wording is measured; the question it raises is not.
He ends with an offer, the one Bike Europe singles out: “I want to be clear on one point: I will be ready, as far as I am able, to lend my support to the project and the plan that seem to me best suited to the current situation and most likely to preserve the business, the jobs and the interests of all stakeholders.”
A brand with no shareholder, a workshop still running
The immediate cause is documented: according to La Gazette France, “falling volumes, high stock levels among the players in the sector, pressure on margins and the end of financial support from Accell Group weakened its position”. The group’s collapse, in early August 2026, left the brand — according to franceinfo — “now on its own, and with little financial room for manoeuvre”.
Cycles Lapierre employs 106 people and posted revenue of €99.1 million in 2025. Its operating loss has narrowed, from €46.3 million in 2024 to €27.2 million in 2025, according to the local press. The clearing of stock points the same way: “In 2024, we had more than eight warehouses here in Dijon to store more than 45,000 bikes,” William Perrier told franceinfo.
The workshop, for its part, is still producing: according to franceinfo, “in its Dijon workshop alone, Lapierre produces 25,000 bikes a year”. The network is holding up, with more than 800 dealers in France, many of which have sent messages of support to management. It is this scope — a working French factory, a dense network, losses that are narrowing — that the six-month observation period is meant to save, or not.
