PARK CITY, Utah (BRAIN) — Signa Sports United has closed its U.S. offices, which included operations for the Vitus and Nukeproof bike brands and the Hotlines wholesale distribution business, all based in Park City.
Signa, headquartered in Berlin, announced earlier this week that it had lost access to a 150 million euro ($159 million) equity commitment from its parent company. The company has reported serious liquidity challenges and had begun the process of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. It announced Friday that is preparing to make insolvency filings for its various subsidiaries in the coming days.
Tennis-Point GmbH, a Germany-based e-commerce retailer owned by Signa, already has filed for insolvency in Germany.
Signa owns the Vitus and Nukeproof brands and the CRC/Wiggle cycling e-commerce sites, along with an array of other e-commerce sites in the tennis, camping and team sports markets. Signa's parent company is controlled by René Benko, an Austrian billionaire.
Last year, U.S. industry veteran Hap Seliga opened Signa's U.S. base for cycling in Park City. The company was selling its Vitus bikes direct to consumers and selling Nukeproof products to U.S. IBDs through its Hotlines wholesale distribution business. It had yet to set up a North American-specific general cycling e-commerce site, although some North American consumers ordered from the U.K.-based CRC/Wiggle sites.
On Thursday, Seliga announced on LinkedIn that the Utah offices had closed.
"Today an amazing group of people has been forced to swallow a bitter pill," Seliga wrote.
"Despite exceeding our top and bottom line FY23 goals handily, SIGNA Sports United North America’s bike division has been forced to cease all operations with less than a few days’ notice. This was triggered Monday by a sudden reneging of a binding 150 million Euro equity commitment to SIGNA Sports United N.V.
"To say this comes as a shock is an understatement. I haven’t even begun to be able to process this yet," Seliga continued.
