IN BRIEF
O2Feel, a French electric bike brand founded in 2009 near Lille, has been placed into court-supervised receivership with trading allowed to continue. The company is now looking for a buyer to avoid liquidation. It is paying the price for the downturn in the electric bike market since 2023, which has left it with stock that is hard to shift after the boom years of 2020-2021. Its marketing director, Xavier Moleux, says he is optimistic and already points to « good leads » for a takeover, in comments reported by Bike Europe.
O2Feel has been placed into court-supervised receivership, with trading allowed to continue. The French electric bike brand, founded in 2009 near Lille, is looking for a buyer to avoid liquidation.
A factory built during the electric bike boom years
O2Feel had taken advantage of the surge in electrically assisted bike sales in 2020 and 2021 to open its own assembly plant near Lille. The market was running at full tilt at the time, driven by an explosion in demand.
A market back to a more normal pace
Since 2023, demand for electric bikes has fallen back to a more normal pace. Many manufacturers have found themselves with excess production capacity and large amounts of stock to shift. For a good number of them, those unsold bikes have tied up most of their financial resources, leaving little room to adapt their organisation to a markedly less buoyant market. That is the backdrop that has caught up with O2Feel.
« Good leads » for a takeover
Court-supervised receivership with continued trading allows O2Feel to keep operating while freezing its earlier debts, giving it time to find a buyer. Asked by Bike Europe, Xavier Moleux, marketing director at O2Feel, sounds confident: « We are optimistic about a takeover. We already have good leads ».
O2Feel is not the only brand in receivership
In late June, it was Le Col, the cycling brand bought by Head, that was placed into receivership. The downturn in the electric bike market is hitting part of the industry, from bike manufacturers through to kit brands.
