Bankrupt sports e-tailer Athleteshop unable to relaunch as potential investors deem its reputation too damaged

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Aug 24, 2018

The bankrupt sports e-tailer Athleteshop, which went into debt in July of this year, will not relaunch as the company had previously hoped.

According to local news outlet RTV Noord, no parties are willing to relaunch the online shop founded by former Dutch ice skater Yuri Sollinger.

Parties that had demonstrated an interest argued that an investment to restore the failed online retailer’s image would be too risky, RTV Noord reported, based on information from the team of lawyers at BENK Advocaten, who are overseeing the bankruptcy case.

The degradation of the company's reputation came about as a result of Athleteshop’s earlier financial and customer service problems. Earlier, the retailer had received numerous complaints from customers on their Facebook page and on various review websites. Complaints included slow delivery, non-delivery or late reimbursements of returned products.

As a result, the company will now be sold off in parts. The inventory that is still available will be sold through an online auction. With regard to the intangible fixed assets, such as software and specific files related to online activities, the liquidator is still in talks with a number of parties, the newspaper said.

At the time of its bankruptcy in July, RTV Noord reported that Athleteshop’s debt stood at around €5 million. Earlier, the e-tailer had made an attempt to reach an arrangement whereby 85 percent of the creditors would have had to agree to receive the payment of the claims in 2019 at a certain interest rate. If 85 percent agreed, an investor would have been willing to give the company a financial boost. 

Athleteshop launched in 2011. The e-tailer offered about 15,000 products, employed about 150-200 people and was available in 15 countries.