Bankrupt e-bike firm Stella attempting restart in "slimmed down" form

E-bike brand Stella Fietsen is making a fresh start in a “slimmed-down form,” bankruptcy administrator Frans van Oss announced on Monday. It is not yet known which company is taking over Stella and what this form will look like exactly. “The acquiring party will provide further information on Stella’s website,” the administrator said.

Stella Fietsen was declared bankrupt by the court at the beginning of last month. According to the administrator, this was unavoidable “given the amount of debts.” The debts amounted to tens of millions of euros. Van Oss reported immediately that there was interest in a restart.

Stella had previously requested a suspension of payments before the bankruptcy was declared. The company referred to difficult circumstances in the market for electric bicycles as the cause and also said that it had no prospect of recovery in the short term. Stella had approximately 450 employees.

The aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic previously led to the bankruptcy of industry peers VanMoof and Qwic. These e-bike companies have also made restarts. VanMoof was acquired by a manufacturer of electric scooters, the British Lavoie. A consortium of investors acquired Qwic.