The British cycling clothing brand VeloVixen has been acquired by the company behind fellow clothing brand Stolen Goat, meaning it will continue to exist.
The women's cycling kit makers entered liquidation last month after “feeling the pinch” in recent months.
Based near Oxford, VeloVixen launched in 2012, riding the wave of an increase in cycling popularity after the success of the London Olympics. Sadly, after a period of 11 years the brand is no more after what co-founder Phil Bingham described as “adverse forces” had conspired against it.
However, The Herd Group Holdings, who run Stolen Goat, announced on Wednesday that it had acquired VeloVixen, along with bikepacking brand ‘Wildcat’.
The press release said: "The takeover will see the important platform that VeloVixen created for the women’s cycling market not only maintained, but grown, with a strong focus on community."
The Herd Group Holdings is also the parent company for Bleat Creative, "a newly formed boutique creative agency for the sports industry and other small businesses".
The founder of VeloVixen, Phil Bingham, said: "Whilst bringing 11 years of hard work to a close is never going to be easy, there is a silver lining to every cloud. We could not be more delighted that the VeloVixen brand, which has contributed so much to so many people’s lives, is to be adopted into the loving care of our friends at Stolen Goat...
"We have total confidence that they will do justice to everything that we have created. They will no doubt help to spread the VeloVixen word further still, and bring new dimensions to our creation that we hope our existing customers will enjoy. We wish them every success and happiness in taking on VeloVixen and can’t wait to see how it goes!”
The CEO of The Herd Group, and founder of Stolen Goat, Tim Bland, said: "VeloVixen has supported, encouraged, empowered and inspired countless women of all ages and abilities to get involved in the sport of cycling.
"This legacy was far too important to let fade away, which is why we wanted to make sure the hard work, passion and commitment that had gone into building the VeloVixen platform didn’t to go to waste.”
The priority is to "take care of existing VeloVixen customers who are awaiting resolution of returns and exchanges from pre-liquidation", but the company will aim to "take the platform to new heights", and to "involve the community that VeloVixen has created as much as possible and create a bespoke, female-focused product range that everyone can get behind."
The Herd Group are to shortly embark on a crowdfunding campaign. Bland said: "This raise gives us the unique opportunity to integrate our communities deeper into our business. Not just to help with funding our expansion plans across the business, but to help to progress and develop our product ranges, designs, styles and categories.
"This really is an exciting time for us, and it’s very rare that we seek outside investment. So this feels like a unique opportunity to take The Herd to the next level.”
