Rad Power Bikes is closing its retail store location in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Seattle-based e-bike maker confirmed Thursday, citing the need to make more organizational changes after a wave of recent layoffs.
Rad Power Bikes declined to share a date of closure, how many employees would be impacted, or an updated headcount.
The Brooklyn RadRetail location opened in October 2022. According to Rad’s website, there are several other RadRetail locations in the U.S., including Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City, St. Petersburg, Fla., and California stores in Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Huntington Beach and San Diego.
“The Rad Power Bikes team has worked diligently to ensure the company is in the best position possible to navigate the realities of the current market and become a sustainable, enduring business,” the company said in a statement emailed to GeekWire. “While we have made some difficult decisions over the last several months, it has become necessary to make organizational changes to drive further efficiency in our business.”
Beyond the store closure, at least one post on LinkedIn this week referenced layoffs at Rad. The company declined to comment on anything related to recent layoffs.
The retail closure comes four months after Rad announced that it was pulling out of Europe and would cease selling its electric bikes to customers in the United Kingdom and European Union starting in 2024. At the time, the company said it planned to lay off “fewer than 40 employees,” marking its fifth round of job cuts since April 2021.
Those job cuts followed previous rounds of layoffs in which Rad slashed 100 positions in April 2021 and another 63 cuts in July 2022; its third round of layoffs came in December and fourth in April of this year.
The company has faced other challenges recently including a wrongful death lawsuit, a lawsuit related to property damage, and the recall of nearly 30,000 units due to a safety issue. A Maryland man filed a complaint in September after he was injured when a front wheel allegedly disengaged.
Rad launched in 2007 and began selling e-bikes directly to consumers through online sales in 2015. It grew into the leading e-bike seller in North America and raised $304 million in 2021. Rad saw big demand amid the pandemic as more people bought e-bikes.
The company was valued at $1.65 billion in October 2021, according to PitchBook, making it one of a handful of “unicorn” startups in the Seattle region at the time.
Rad is led by former Sony exec Phil Molyneux, who replaced co-founder Mike Radenbaugh last year. Radenbaugh remains chairman of the company.
“Despite these changes, we continue to be laser-focused on serving our current and future Rad Riders, providing them with high-quality, innovative, safe e-bikes and accessories and a plethora of service and support options,” Rad said in its statement Thursday.
