Shock administration for longestablished distributor

Moore Large, the UK’s largest family-owned supplier and distributor of bicycles and formerly motorcycles and scooters, filed a Notice of Intention to Appoint an Administrator in the High Court on 13 March.

In April 2022, the Derbybased business announced the successful completion of a management buyout by the board of directors. Retiring chairman Nigel Moore brought to an end three generations and 75 years of Moore family involvement in the business.

his own branded ranges into the market in 1986.

The most recent set of company accounts for the year to 31 January 2021 gave little warning of what was to follow. The company reported a tenfold increase in pre-tax profit to £6m, up from £587,213 in 2020.

The Bicycle Association’s Annual Market Data Report for 2022 showed that UK bike sales had fallen to their lowest level in two decades. Other industry analysts suggest that cycle sales fell by 22% in 2022, down to 1.8 million units and 27% below preCovid levels.

Auctioned Assets

Joint administrators Raj Mittal and Nathan Jones of specialist business advisory firm FRP Trading instructed John Pye Auctions to put stock and assets up for sale.

HUSQVARNA

IT’S GOOD TO HAVE MORE INCENTIVES TO encourage authorised factory service programmes for end users, and Husqvarna has come up with a cracker. Its new Lifetime Mobility Cover scheme is a free breakdown cover product for Husqvarna road bikes offered when owners have the bike serviced at an official dealer. Each time the bike is serviced, it’s covered for breakdowns until the next official service, with roadside assistance that also covers accident, theft, vandalism and fire. The cover lasts for a year, or until the next service is due, whichever is sooner. The programme is available for the full lifetime of the bike, which is set at 60,000km/eight years for singles and 80,000km/eight years for twin cylinder machines. More info: www.husqvarna-motorcycles.com

Moore Large has a long history in the motorcycle and cycle trade. John Moore opened his first bike shop in 1947, and by the early 1970s had expanded to more than 20 shops. In 1974 he teamed up with the UK distributor of Puch bicycles and mopeds in the Midlands and subsequently took over as the national distributor for the Austrian brand. In the late 1980s, John Moore was among the first to see the potential of products being manufactured in the Far East. He visited China to source bicycles and accessories and launched

Motorised Division

MOORE LARGE WAS A KEY player in the motorcycle and scooter world until recently. In 1998 the company returned to the motorised sector for the first time in decades, being appointed UK distributor for Sanyang’s SYM branded machines. From a relatively slow start, the company built up the Taiwanese brand to become a volume player, with more than 150 dealers in the UK network registering more than 4500 units in 2001.

The business has seen challenging times across bikes, components, and accessories in the past months. In February, the firm pulled out from the COREbike show in Northampton.

Moore Large’s inventory included approximately 35,000 cycles with a retail value of around £25m. In addition, accessories to the tune of an estimated £10m were also to be sold-off. News of the auction supported fears that the retail bike channel will see a vast number of discounted bicycles and accessories in a market already overloaded with excess stock.

Moore Large’s inventory was listed for sale on 24 March at www.johnpye.co.uk as well as being available across all John Pye’s auction sites in Nottingham, Chesterfield, Port Talbot and Derby.

SYM changed track in 2010 and appointed MotoGB as its UK distributor. Moore Large countered the loss of SYM with a short spell with the Chinese brand Generic, before announcing an exclusive UK distribution agreement for the CPI brand. Following a string of reliability issues, Moore Large moved on to distribute the KSR Moto, Brixton and Nipponia brands from 2013 before finally closing the doors on its motorised division in 2019.

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