Cranked Cycles: Napier bike shop in liquidation, owing $237,000

Cranked Cycles in Napier is closing down. Photo / Warren Buckland

A long-running Napier bike shop has gone into liquidation, owing $237,000 to its creditors, which include staff members.

Cranked Cycles, in Munroe St in the city’s CBD, has been operating since 2005, selling bikes, parts and accessories, as well as a workshop to repair bikes, and has previously put its success down to a boom in the region’s cycle trails.

But the company entered voluntary liquidation last week and signs advertising a closing-down sale have been placed in the shop window.

A liquidators report said there were three main reasons for the insolvency: an inability to consistently obtain stock from suppliers, an inability to meet consumer demand due to the lack of stock and lastly, a general lack of consumer spending.

A representative from the business declined to comment when contacted by Hawke’s Bay Today.

The report this week said Inland Revenue is owed $100,000 (including penalties and interest), employees are owed $15,000, and the list of other creditors includes suppliers, the bank and the landlord.

Unsecured creditors are owed $152,000. Cranked Cycles can continue trading while in liquidation to help pay its debts and the store remained open on Thursday.

The director of the company is Antony Harding who represented New Zealand in triathlon in the past.

As part of the process, the appointed liquidator, Grant Reynolds, is inviting creditors to fill out a creditor’s claim form.

Once that is completed, the amount of money owed to various creditors could be updated.

The employees are considered “preferential creditors”, meaning they will be given first preference for payment if that money can be recovered.

“For lease” signs have also been placed in the shop windows.