Serotta lays off 40% of workforce, planning shutdown

[buddybikes]

Worth looking at a box but I think that Penn reel is made in China :-(

[pro12tc]

I heard a rumor that both Ben and Bill were just fired from Serotta. Can anyone confirm... or hopefully deny this rumor?

[Point Grey]

Originally Posted by pro12tc

I heard a rumor that both Ben and Bill were just fired from Serotta. Can anyone confirm... or hopefully deny this rumor?

Yes, both fired.

[vqdriver]

Really???
Is that some type of corporate formality or is it what it sounds like?

[rustychisel]

Well I'm guessing, but in today's corporate world you get fired for telling the truth or being a dissenter, you know.

[CunegoFan]

I don't get it. What is left of the brand is the nostalgia of 40+ year-olds who remember Serotta's heyday in the 80s. What is left after Ben Serotta is seen to have been unceremoniously chucked out? At the least couldn't they have engineered a "voluntary" parting that takes place after twenty-four months of Ben staying on in name only?

Then again I don't get the wisdom of temporarily shutting down.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . then the new owners don't have a lot of options. If they couldn't get anybody to invest with him there, then what will they do if they got rid of him?

#1--Shut it all down and sell all the assets?

#2--Slim down the operation, keep making one "flagship" model in Saratoga and the rest of the product line will be outsourced to Taiwan?

#3--Fire everybody here, sell everything, and only keep the name to paste on those Taiwan bikes?

My understanding is these guys bought the company, couldn't get anybody to invest to keep it going, and now have gotten rid of the guy who was making a good run at a turnaround and the original owner who many present owners have an emotional attachment and loyalty to.

It should be interesting to see what the new owners says next and what kind of corporate PR BS they couch it in.

BBD

[PQJ]

If Ben has been fired, perhaps he deserved to be?!?!?!?

It should be clear from the last who knows how many pages that Ben wasn't a good business man. Bad pricing decisions. Bad product decisions. Bad marketing. Bad customer service. Leadership has to come from the top and hubris won't get you far for long

[Bruce K]

I've stayed out of this do far but this latest "move" makes sense and then doesn't.

I understand snd agree that Ben may have made a bunch of bad decisions over the years and I understand how Serotta got to this point, but I tend to agree with Dave on this one.

What is the Serotta brand name really if Ben is jettisoned? If he were kept around as the new company transitioned to some new model and then he were to gracefully retire it would make some sense.

If their customer base is the folks with attachment to Ben, then this move alienates old customers at a time when potential new customers are asking "What's a Serotta and why should I buy one?"

It's the old customers who can answer that better than anyone

BK

[katematt]

I know they were aligned with Blue and Mad Fibre, but in this case maybe they (PE buys) had no interest in helping the bike company in the first place. Could be a land grab. I have not been there but hear its a nice house, factory and land.

[sitzmark]

You've got a senior management team publicly sharing dirty laundry and most likely making "rogue" decisions to shut down operations. That leaves a non-producing entity for the ownership ... nothing in the pipeline to leverage or secure investment. Drives down the potential value of the company if you're trying to engineer a buyout, but doesn't do anything for the current owners.

Hard to know what's going on, but it appears (to me) to be a power play and the ownership has decided their interests are not served by a management team trying to undermine them. Conversely, Ben and Bill are doing what they believe they need to do to secure a buyout and the future for the company that they envision.

[Spin71]

Originally Posted by steveandbarb1

Worth looking at a box but I think that Penn reel is made in China :-(

Only the lower end models.

[laupsi]

Originally Posted by pro12tc

I heard a rumor that both Ben and Bill were just fired from Serotta. Can anyone confirm... or hopefully deny this rumor?

if the rumor is true then I guess that does it then, doesn't it? Serotta Cycles RIP!

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeDave

. . . then the new owners don't have a lot of options. If they couldn't get anybody to invest with him there, then what will they do if they got rid of him?

#1--Shut it all down and sell all the assets?

#2--Slim down the operation, keep making one "flagship" model in Saratoga and the rest of the product line will be outsourced to Taiwan?

#3--Fire everybody here, sell everything, and only keep the name to paste on those Taiwan bikes?

My understanding is these guys bought the company, couldn't get anybody to invest to keep it going, and now have gotten rid of the guy who was making a good run at a turnaround and the original owner who many present owners have an emotional attachment and loyalty to.

It should be interesting to see what the new owners says next and what kind of corporate PR BS they couch it in.

BBD

"My understanding is these guys bought the company, couldn't get anybody to invest to keep it going, and now have gotten rid of the guy who was making a good run at a turnaround and the original owner who many present owners have an emotional attachment and loyalty to."

Or maybe they actually weren't making a "good run" of it in the eyes of Bradway. A turn around looks like $$$ and lots of orders. If all they needed was 2 weeks to finish up and close out all outstanding orders, they were not exactly booming with business. What 80 guys on a Internet Forum think of the new bikes is not to be totally dismissed in this day and age but it makes Private Equity guys happier when they see orders for bikes. Lots of them...

Emotional attachment is for Mothers and their children.

If Ben really intends to continue making bikes, wanting and or using the name Serrotta is the last thing he should ever want.

Ben built some good bikes (very, very good bikes) in his day but he NEVER built anything close to a good BRAND.

[MattTuck]

This is a very sad soap opera to watch.

When people buy this kind of thing, essentially an over priced high quality toy, you have to be able to tell a compelling story about the product... I don't see any of this recent donnybrook contributing to that cause.

After thinking about this more, I don't really have any clarity into what the owners had in mind.

If it were me, I think I'd try to sell the Serotta Cycling Institute (if it is in fact owned by serotta?) and their methodology to a company like Trek or Cannondale to provide a platform to compete with Specialized Body Geometry. As far as the bikes, I think you need to either be part of a bigger bike company (Maybe be a top end custom option for Trek) or become a smaller company, rationalize overhead, drop employee count and the number of bikes you build. Become a leaner company. Probably get rid of the two factories and do everything under one roof. Brand the people building the bikes, allow customers to see them in action and communicate with them so they don't get the feeling their bike is being built assembly line style.

I am not sure this will happen, so I am looking forward to hearing about the resurrected brand. Attores Cycles, Phoenix Cycles, Resurrection Frames... there are so many great ways you could go with the talent they have available.... it would be really exciting to see Bill and Ben take a few of the most talented employees and go back to the roots.

And on top of that, you'd finally have a compelling story to tell again. Something fresh. Something relevant. You'd take the best elements of the brand and jettison all of the baggage.