SuperBike Factory collapse leaves £27.8m debt as losses mount
SuperBike Factory's administrators say the failed motorcycle retailer had £27.8m of debt after losses of more than £30m over two years.
The July collapse of SuperBike Factory is reported to have left the company with debts in the region of £27.8m, with the company's administrators revealing the scale of the losses behind the failure of one of the UK's biggest used motorcycle retailers.
The figures come from the administrators' report to creditors, which provides the clearest picture yet of what happened to SuperBike Factory and why attempts to rescue the business ultimately failed.
At its peak, SuperBike Factory Group (SBF) was turning over around £94m a year, selling approximately 17,000 motorcycles through six showrooms and its online operation. It employed around 270 people before the collapse.
That growth came to an abrupt end in July, when the company ceased trading and entered administration after a series of increasingly serious financial problems.
The latest figures show just how far the business had fallen. The trading company recorded a £19.1m pre-tax loss in 2024, followed by another £11.7m loss in unpublished 2025 accounts.
The company's private equity owner, Enact, is owed £14.2m, while DF Capital Bank, which provided stock finance to SuperBike Factory, is owed around £11.9m.
DF Capital is now recovering much of its position by repossessing motorcycles covered by retention-of-title arrangements. This is significant given the ownership dispute that emerged after the collapse, with administrators previously confirming that a third-party funder was claiming ownership of some motorcycles held by or sold to customers.
SBF also owed £2.2m to HMRC under a time-to-pay arrangement, although the company had been unable to keep up with the agreed payments. Other unsecured creditors, including suppliers, customers and employees, are owed a further £5.3m.
SuperBike Factory: What went wrong?
The administrators say the problems were rooted in a prolonged slowdown in the used motorcycle market following the Covid-era boom.
Higher borrowing costs, falling used motorcycle values, increased competition and slower stock turnover put pressure on the brand, and are all reported to be contributing factors in the collapse.
The uncertainty surrounding the FCA's review of historic motor finance commission arrangements added another complication, while increased employment costs, including higher employer National Insurance contributions, further increased the company's overheads.
That is broadly consistent with what Visordown heard from former SuperBike Factory employees shortly after the collapse. Two former staff members told us in July that warning signs had been appearing well before the company officially entered administration, although from very different perspectives inside the business.
SBF had already been trying to find a way through its problems for several months.
DF Capital brought in KR8 Advisory in March 2026 to assess the company's liquidity, after concerns were raised about its exposure to the business. One issue was a request from SBF to increase its funding facility, partly to help deal with mounting HMRC arrears.
DF Capital agreed to continue supporting the business while it attempted to turn things around through the spring and summer, but sales failed to reach the levels forecast.
KR8 was then brought back in during June to run an accelerated sale process. Several parties expressed an interest in buying the business, but no deal could be completed that would allow SuperBike Factory to continue trading as a going concern.
The final nail in the coffin came in mid-July, when SBF’s IT supplier cut access to critical systems due to unpaid bills. That left the company unable to operate normally, and was the first clear indication to staff that things were beginning to unravel.
The following day, 17 July, SuperBike Factory filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators. Its sites were unable to open over the weekend before KR8 formally took control on 20 July.
That brought an end to a business that had grown rapidly from its foundation in 2010.
SBF started with a single showroom before expanding into a national used-bike operation. Macclesfield remained its flagship location, while the company added Donington Park in 2021, acquired Ritebike in 2022 and subsequently opened showrooms in Bristol, Milton Keynes and Crawley.
The collapse has also left a trail of unresolved customer issues.
We've previously reported on customers struggling to recover motorcycles, including cases where bikes handed over to SuperBike Factory were subsequently advertised for sale before payments had been made. One Ducati owner managed to recover his £5,200 Streetfighter 848 from the company's Donington site just hours before the business stopped trading.
SuperBike Factory is not the first motorcycle business to run into serious financial trouble in recent years. Completely Motorbikes, which had 21 showrooms and around £70m turnover, collapsed in 2024, while Mutt Motorcycles and CCM Motorcycles entered administration in 2025.
Find the latest motorcycle news on Visordown
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
