IN BRIEF
The company that manufactures Simplon bikes, 2Rad Produktions GmbH — formerly SIMPLON Fahrrad GmbH —, has applied to open restructuring proceedings before the Feldkirch Regional Court in Austria. The notice from KSV1870, the Austrian creditor protection association, puts the liabilities at around €33.4 million, of which €28.3 million is inherited from the first proceedings and “comes back to life”, including €26 million owed to a single principal creditor. Fifty-four employees and 150 creditors are affected. The company intends to propose a plan repaying 20% of claims over two years, and the proceedings are being applied for without self-administration.
| Company concerned | 2Rad Produktions GmbH (formerly SIMPLON Fahrrad GmbH) |
| Shareholder | SIMPLON Bike GmbH (formerly SIMPLON Holding GmbH) |
| Proceedings applied for | Restructuring without self-administration |
| Court | Feldkirch Regional Court |
| Liabilities | Around €33.4 million |
| Of which carried over from the first proceedings | €28.3 million, including €26 million owed to a single principal creditor |
| Employees affected | 54 |
| Creditors | 150 |
| Plan proposed | 20% of claims, payable over two years |
Manufacturing of Simplon bikes is back before the court. The notice published by KSV1870, the Austrian creditor protection association, is bluntly headlined: “restructuring plan failed”.
Simplon: which company exactly is in proceedings
That distinction governs the whole reading of the case. The KSV1870 notice names the applicant company: “2Rad Produktions GmbH (formerly SIMPLON Fahrrad GmbH) is applying for restructuring proceedings without self-administration”. This is the manufacturing entity. The same record identifies its shareholder: “SIMPLON Bike GmbH, formerly SIMPLON Holding GmbH” — which is not the company applying for the proceedings.
The application was filed with the Feldkirch Regional Court, in Vorarlberg, where the manufacturer is based.
€33.4 million in debt, €26 million of it owed to a single creditor
The overall figure is set out by the association: “In total, debts of €33.4 million must currently be assumed.” Its breakdown is even more telling: “Of that amount, €28.3 million corresponds to debts from the earlier restructuring proceedings, which come back to life. Of those €28.3 million, €26 million concerns one principal creditor, and around €2.3 million other creditors.”
In other words, most of the liabilities are not new: these are the claims written off by the 2024 plan, which become payable again as soon as that plan is not honoured. The record lists 54 employees and 150 creditors.
A plan at 20%, and control passes to an administrator
“The applicant intends to submit a restructuring plan with a rate of 20%, payable over two years”, KSV1870 writes. The second point carries at least as much weight: the proceedings are being applied for without self-administration. The notice says no more than that: it names no administrator and does not describe how powers are divided within the proceedings.
As for the causes, the notice files them under a heading that is worth reading as it stands: “causes of insolvency according to the debtor’s statements”. According to that version, “after the takeover of the business from the former debtor, it reportedly emerged that the latter’s communication before the acquisition of the shares had not been entirely comprehensible or correct”.
The same heading moves on to the industrial side. The stocks taken over from the first insolvency were reportedly “insufficient and incomplete” when the goods were handed over, so that the existing order book could not be cleared quickly, with missing parts preventing “completion on the one hand, delivery on the other”. The notice describes what followed: a degraded ability to deliver, follow-up orders that only partly came in, and from there a cash-flow squeeze.
This is the reading of one party to the case, put before the court; as at the date this article was published, we found no public response from the former owner.
