{"id":46577,"date":"2026-09-22T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/?p=46577"},"modified":"2026-09-22T06:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T05:34:24","slug":"superbike-factory-administrators-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/46577-superbike-factory-administrators-report","title":{"rendered":"SuperBike Factory collapse leaves \u00a328m debts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Administrators estimate that SuperBike Factory Group will leave debts of \u00a327.8m after its collapse in July, TheBusinessDesk.com can reveal.<\/p>\n

The \u00a394m-turnover group was Europe’s largest used motorbike retailer and sold 17,000 bikes per year through six retail locations and its online store. 270 staff have been made redundant, nearly all when the sites shut nine weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Endless’s private equity fund, Enact, which specialises in investing in turnaround situations bought the business in December 2023. It brought in a working capital facility and new management but ultimately was unable to change the group’s fortunes.<\/p>\n

The trading company recorded pre-tax losses of \u00a319.1m in 2024 and a further \u00a311.7m in unpublished accounts for 2025.<\/p>\n

Enact was owed \u00a314.2m, although it will receive a unquantified distribution following the sale of the intellectual property, which has a book value of \u00a310.6m.<\/p>\n

DF Capital Bank (DFC), the group’s stock finance provider, was owed around \u00a311.9m, and is recovering much of its position directly by repossessing motorcycles held under retention of title.<\/p>\n

SuperBike Factory had a time to pay arrangement with HMRC on its tax liabilities of \u00a32.2m, but had not been able to maintain payments.\u00a0Other unsecured creditors, including trade suppliers, customers and employees, were owed \u00a35.3m.<\/p>\n

The appointment of KR8 Advisory’s James Saunders, Michael Lennon and Robert Halliday as administrators<\/a> brought to an end four months of rescue efforts, although there had been more informal attempts to find a buyer for the business for several months before then.<\/p>\n

In their report to creditors, the joint administrators said: “Despite continued growth, the trading performance of the business had suffered for an extended period while the UK used motorcycle market underwent a prolonged period of normalisation after the Covid pandemic. This is in part attributed to higher borrowing costs and the increased cost of consumer finance weighing on discretionary spending, while softer used motorcycle values, increased competition and slower stock turnover placed increasing pressure on dealers’ margins and working capital.<\/p>\n

“More recently, continuing uncertainty surrounding the FCA’s review of historic motor finance commission arrangements added further complexity to an already difficult trading environment. In addition, higher employment costs, including increases in employers’ National Insurance contributions, further increased operating costs across the sector.”<\/p>\n

The collapse was triggered when the retailer’s IT supplier cut access to critical systems over unpaid bills on July 16. The following day, Friday 17, SuperBike Factory filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators<\/a>, but its sites were unable to open over the weekend and on Monday the administrators took over.<\/p>\n

DFC brought in KR8 in March to assess SuperBike Factory’s liquidity, after raising concerns about its exposure, which had been driven partly by a request to increase facility limits to cover the mounting tax arrears with HMRC.<\/p>\n

It agreed to continue its support to give the business time to turn around ahead of its spring and summer peak, but sales fell short of forecast. KR8 was re-engaged in June to run an accelerated sale process and despite a number of parties expressing interest, a sale as a going concern could not be completed.<\/p>\n

The UK motorcycle retail sector has already seen some casualties in the past two years, notably Completely Motorbikes, a 21-showroom, \u00a370m-turnover group which collapsed in October 2024. Bike manufacturers Mutt Motorcycles and\u00a0CCM Motorcycles<\/a>\u00a0also entered administration in 2025.<\/p>\n

UK new motorcycle registrations fell 19% in 2025, partly caused by distortion around the Euro5+ emissions rules which pulled sales forward into 2024.<\/p>\n

SuperBike Factory was founded in 2010 by entrepreneurs Scott Behrens and James Watson and it built its reputation as a disruptor in a traditionally fragmented, dealer-led market.\u00a0The business also built a parallel finance arm, positioning itself as the UK\u2019s leading motorcycle finance broker.<\/p>\n

Macclesfield remained its flagship site and is one of Europe\u2019s largest indoor motorbike showrooms. A second site at Donington Park, adjacent to the race circuit, opened in 2021.<\/p>\n

In 2022 the company acquired Bradford-based dealer Ritebike, rebranding it SuperBike Factory West Yorkshire. Bristol and Milton Keynes showrooms followed in 2023, and\u00a0in February 2025 the company opened its sixth site, in Crawley, on the former premises of P&H Motorcycles following a refurbishment<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: Endless’s turnaround fund, Enact, had \u00a314m committed in the motorbike retailer when it failed in July<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":43806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47995],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-46577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retail","tag-bristol-and-bath","tag-cheshire-and-warrington","tag-leicestershire","tag-top-story","tag-west-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"\nSuperBike Factory collapse leaves \u00a328m debts - South West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/46577-superbike-factory-administrators-report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SuperBike Factory collapse leaves \u00a328m debts - 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