AMSTERDAM (BRAIN) — Dutch e-bike brand VanMoof has been granted court protection from creditors according to Het Financieele Dagblad, a Dutch financial news source. Het Financieele Dagblad says a deferral of payment is usually the prelude to bankruptcy.
The court has appointed two administrators to manage the company and declared a two-month cooling-off period in which creditors are not allowed to seize assets from the company.
The company later confirmed the insolvency in a message on its website:
"On Wednesday, July, 12 the district court of Amsterdam has granted VanMoof Global Holding B.V. (preliminary) suspension of payment (‘surseance van betaling’) and appointed two administrators (‘bewindvoerders’). VanMoof B.V. and VanMoof Global Support B.V. have filed for suspension of payments as well. The court has also ordered a cooling down period (‘afkoelingsperiode’) of two months. Together with the management of VanMoof the administrators are currently assessing the situation in order to find a solution so that VanMoof can continue its activities. Due to the recent developments, we have decided to temporarily close the brand stores for the safety of our colleagues in the stores. We work hard to continue our services and will separately contact all customers as soon as possible regarding pending deliveries or repairs. Unfortunately and due to the circumstances, we don't have answers to all your questions at this moment."
The company stopped accepting new orders on its website several weeks ago. At the time, the company said it would stop accepting orders “to catch up on production and delivery of existing orders.”
Regarding the pause in taking orders, a company spokesman told TechCrunch that “What started as a minor IT issue had an unexpected upside. Both the SX4 and the SA5 [two newer models it launched this year] have proven to be very popular product lines — and proactively pausing sales will give us an opportunity to catch up on delivery and production of existing orders.”
Techcrunch also quoted unnamed sources who said several top executives including the CEO and a co-founder have left the company recently.
Earlier this year the company said it would close if it didn’t receive a new cash infusion, which it received from some of its existing investors.
