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Another one bites the dust
Nicol-less Ibis files for Chapter 7
Ibis LLC, the maker of Ibis bicycles, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on February 21 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Northern California Division.
Founded by Scot Nicol in 1981, the company moved to Sonoma County in 1983, where it manufactured bikes for the next 18 years. Last year, in a bid to cut the rising cost of Northern California wages, Ibis entered into a co-production arrangement with Strong Frames of Bozeman, Montana.
“As the cost of living has increased here, we decided that we cannot provide living wages any more,” Nicol told the North Bay Business Journal in 2001. “Our workers (in Montana) can afford to buy homes and raise families.”
But not for long. The joint venture collapsed near the end of last year, and Ibis’s chief operating officer, Roger Salameh, told Bicycle Retailer & Industry News of problems meeting production and cost targets for its steel and titanium frames. Carl Strong, founder and president of Strong Frames, declined comment.
As for Nicol, he and the company he founded have parted ways. He sold the company in April 2000 to a group of private investors that included Salameh, but stayed on in a public-relations capacity until finally leaving the company last year.
The Chapter 7 filing means American cyclists have probably seen the last of Ibis as they now know it. While the more-frequently seen Chapter 11 filing protects a struggling company from its creditors while it develops a plan to put its finances in order, a Chapter 7 filing leads to the appointment of a trustee who administers the case and liquidates the debtor’s non-exempt assets.
In its February filing, Ibis listed assets of $68,960 and liabilities of $1,443,748. Nicol’s “old” Ibis — Ibis Cycles Inc, renamed Roseland Design Inc. — is reportedly the largest creditor, owed more than $700,000.
