Wattbike: Brand used by Manchester United and British Army expects ‘further losses’ as sales plummet

Static bike brand Wattbike said it anticipates making “further losses” as a slump in turnover resulted in a “disappointing” year for the company.

The Nottingham-headquartered group, which supplies training bikes for organisations including The British Army, Manchester United and David Lloyd gyms, saw its turnover fall to £13.6m in the 12 months ended September 30, 2023, down from £20.4m in the year before, according to newly-filed accounts.

Wattbike said the reduction in sales had been caused by suppressed customer demand following a surge in interest during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The group shed eight members of staff during the year, reducing its employee count to 64 people from 76 during the 12 months.

But despite this dip in turnover, Wattbike managed to cut its pre-tax loss to £6.8m during its financial year, down from £8.7m in the 12 months before.

The group said this was bolstered by taking measures to improve cost efficiency.

What led to Wattbike’s ‘disappointing’ year?

In a statement published on Companies House, the company behind Wattbike said: “Whilst the emergence of Covid-19 in 2020 drive a period of very strong sales growth particularly for direct to consumer sales, like many businesses it also presented challenges in the post-Covid period with suppressed levels of consumer demand and inflated product and supply chain costs in subsequent years and, despite the strength of the Wattbike product, the recovery of the sector as a whole has been slow.

“There factors contributed to a disappointing financial performance during the financial year with a 33 per cent reduction in annual turnover leading to an EBITDA loss in the year of £4,303,659.

“The market had continued, since the end of the financial year, to be challenging though with action taken by the directors to improve cost efficiency in the business an improved financial trajectory is anticipated moving forwards, although further losses are still expected in the short term.

“Notwithstanding this and the continuing challenges, the directors have confidence that the group can be well positioned to deliver sustainable growth over the next period with a strong brand and product range, an exciting and well advanced innovation pipeline to improve and widen the reach of the product range and the customer base, a long established, stable and collaborative bike manufacturing partner, and new distribution partners established across a number of international markets.”