Sky News reports that Rapha Cycling, the fashionable and functional British brand of cycling apparel, has hired William Blair, an investment bank, to ready the company for a sale.
Rapha was rumored already to be gearing up for a change of ownership a few months ago, when Pinarello was sold to a private equity firm partly owned by LVMH, the French luxury group. According to Sky News, Rapha has now started reviewing its options, including a sale or a potential flotation.
The business is partly owned by Active Partners, a private equity firm. Rapha was established in 2004 by Simon Mottram, a branding consultant. The company said its sales reached £63 million (€74.7m-$81.3m) for the year to January 2017, an increase of 30 percent. That was driven by a growth of 35 percent in online sales, which made up nearly 75 percent of the group's turnover for the year.
Rapha further reported 24 percent growth in sales at its own stores, boosted by the opening of new stores in Seoul, Copenhagen and Chicago. Rapha currently has 16 stores in operation, only three of them in the U.K. In addition to offering the company's products and those of some other suppliers, they serve as meeting points for urban cyclists.
The group stated in its trading update in February that it enjoyed strong sales growth across all channels in the last quarter of the fiscal year, which is a crucial trading period. Membership of the Rapha Cycling Club, a paid-for members' club that provides access to exclusive products and events, has more than doubled in the year to 8,790 in January.
Rapha and Active Partners both declined to comment on a potential sale.
