When the more than 110-year-old bicycle manufacturer Prophete filed for insolvency at the Bielefeld district court at the end of last year, it was a big surprise, at least for outsiders. The industry has recently experienced an enormous upswing as a result of the pandemic. Many cities are creating in the course of the traffic turnaround more space and exclusive routes for the bike. The prospects for bicycle manufacturers and dealers are actually good.
The insolvency administrator Manuel Sack, who was provisionally appointed in the Prophete case, is correspondingly confident. More than ten potential investors have reported and expressed an interest in the bicycle manufacturer from Rheda-Wiedenbrück near Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia and the subsidiary Cycle Union based in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, says the restructuring expert from the law firm Brinkmann and Partners. The employees are now producing again at both locations. Sack hopes that with the planned opening of proceedings on March 1, a new investor will have taken over the business.
But confidence is part of the job of insolvency administrators. The questions are: How could the traditional company go bankrupt despite the good market situation? And what does that mean for the entire industry?