Hundreds of Superbike Factory staff face redundancy after superbike factory staff redundancies were triggered by the company entering administration on July 20 and ceasing trading immediately. Customers who had already paid in full are now caught in the same collapse, with motorcycles still undelivered and staff told to claim through the Redundancy Payments Service.
273 jobs were lost across six sites, while only a few staff were retained to support the sale of assets. That split leaves the operational skeleton in place for the administrators, but it also means most workers are now outside the business and pushed into the statutory claims process.
Chris Mudie and Darren Booth
Just over £5000 was the amount Chris Mudie paid on July 9 for a Triumph Trophy 1200 that was due to be delivered on July 22. He said: “We’ve paid for the bike, it was ready to be delivered,” and added: “I don’t earn a lot, and that was our life savings, so to speak.”
£7900 was the agreed final price Darren Booth paid for a 2011 Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide after contacting the Macclesfield branch on July 9. He paid a £500 deposit by debit card, sent the balance by bank transfer on July 15 and spent around 80 minutes on hold on July 17 trying to get an update; by then, the money had already moved but the bike had not. He said: “I took out enough money for this motorbike from my pension, which makes it even more heartbreaking as that has now gone missing,” and described the collapse as “a real case of bad timing.”
Jonathan Lodge at webuyanybike.com
Around three and a half years was the length of time Jonathan Lodge had worked as an on the road technician for webuyanybike.com before learning of his redundancy on the same day the official statement was released online. He said: “I think we all expected the worst,” but added: “But it was when we started seeing the group of people in suits from the administrators that we thought ‘this ain’t good’.”
“It just seems very abrupt,” Lodge said, after staff across the six sites were told what the administration meant for their jobs. “No one knew anything until it started popping up on people’s social media on Friday.”
Redundancy Payments Service claims
Staff now have to approach the Government's Redundancy Payments Service for some of the money they are owed, which turns their claims into a formal process rather than an internal payroll issue. For customers, the practical route is different: Booth said he has already been in touch with the administrators via email and telephone, while also contacting Trading Standards, Citizens Advice and his bank twice.
The tougher complication is that Superbike Factory had been viewed by Booth as Europe’s largest used motorcycle company, yet it still entered administration and stopped trading at once. He was hoping to join a Harley-Davidson rally in his village on August Bank Holiday weekend, but the collapse has left the payment trail, the delivery promise and the asset sale all moving in different directions.
What caused the rescue deal to fail and whether customers who paid in full will recover their money are not answered. For employees, the immediate task is to file claims; for buyers, the money has gone out, but the bikes have not come back.
