BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Titus Cycles has revealed that its company assets are being liquidated by its bank as Titus’ largest creditor has foreclosed on an outstanding debt.
The future of the firm has yet to be determined, with various options – including Titus being sold or acquired with the brand possibly re-launched – currently in the mix.
Titus Cycles UK distributor Axel Imports is currently working with the company to source spare parts for existing customers.
Following the loss of Titus, Axel Imports has launched its own brand – Veloti – to fill the gap. Designed as a road-only range of American-made titanium frames, the products feature carbon fibre ‘Exogrid’ technology. Originally designed to run alongside Titus’ mountain range, Axel is expanding the Veloti range to include hardtail 26 and 29 mountain frames to cover the potential loss in Titus sales.
“We have worked with Titus for two and a half years and enjoyed strong performance in the UK market where sales of high end bespoke mountain bikes have been relatively tough,” explained Andrew Foley from Axel Imports. “Our business this year has been bolstered by the phenomenal success of Industry Nine wheels but we were swimming against the tide by not having a strong road product since Titus decided to concentrate on off road bikes.”
“We decided to use our knowledge and connections from our dealings with Titus to launch our own brand of frames, handmade in Arizona by an ex Titus master frame builder and using a newer design of Exogrid tubing that Titus made famous but discontinued due to the premium pricing and the economic downturn.
“By going direct to the tubing supplier and frame builder we can bring UK specific designs to market without the Titus margin resulting in a 25 per cent decrease in price. These frames are still premium priced but at around £2599 they represent great value considering the manufacturing technology is some of the most innovative and labour intensive in the bike industry. We believe this is one of the most desirable bikes on the market in terms of hand built quality and bespoke innovation.”
