Following its takeover by Lavoie, the electric bicycle brand VanMoof would have broken with its founders, and currently operates with less than 10% of its employees.
Since Thursday August 31, we have known the buyer of the famous connected electric bikes. Lavoie, a subsidiary of McLaren Applied, has bought the electric bike manufacturer VanMoof, with many unknowns about the amount and the future of the group.
Farewell to the founders of VanMoof
We learn, however, what is happening at the head of VanMoof. The two co-founders, the Taco brothers and Ties Carlier, also leaders since the beginning in 2009, would have been ousted from their own baby, but would however retain an advisory role. Lavoie and its CEO Eliott Wertheimer are therefore leading the Dutch firm’s boat for the moment. President Gillian Tans, however recruited in May 2022, had already left the Dutch ship last May.
It may be a way to draw a line under the past, and a strategy that led to the abyss. Seeing too big for its beautiful connected bikes, and especially by betting on specific electronics, more unreliable, VanMoof has widened its losses due to a heavy after-sales service to manage.
Full of equipment and lightness
As for the employees, the end also seems very harsh. It is as much voluntary as involuntary, since many of them fled the company among the 700 or so that it had before the bankruptcy. Today, VanMoof would only keep 50 to 60 active employees according to the media Bright.
It is not known, however, when activities will return to normal, whether it is the marketing of VanMoof S5 or X4 electric bikes, the delivery of orders not honored, or the repair of gear in the workshops. In any case, the takeover press release had tried to reassure, with a “commitment to keeping cyclists on the road”. But the doubt is for the moment allowed. With so few employees, how can we imagine a dynamic and rapid recovery?
Further details should be known in the hours and days to come.
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