Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

Best bankrupt? Not bankrupt!

Forum for kitesurfers
knyfe
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 618
Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2003 7:29 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 75 times

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby knyfe » Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:32 am

I got one of their Ad emails today? Surprised to see that. Whats the story?

Jamie-NYC
Medium Poster
Posts: 73
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 2:56 am
Local Beach: Fire Island, New York
Gear: Best Kahoona 13.5m, 11.5m, 9.5m - Slingshot Turbine 17m - Pansh A15 18m
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby Jamie-NYC » Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:39 am

Massivemick wrote:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:49 pm
I think it's time to close this thread?
On the contrary, now we need to know who BEST is in 2019. As I understand it the parent holding company is bankrupt or in receivership, the principals having done many millions$$$ in fraud using the kite holdings, and the designer and most of the production and warehouse team gone, etc.. So, who is BEST now? If still part of the same parent company, potential risk sending in your money. If not, potential risk not knowing who is behind BEST. Has always struck me as odd that no one from BEST has jumped into this thread to offer info or reassurances.
These users thanked the author Jamie-NYC for the post:
Toby (Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:39 pm)
Rating: 3.03%

Donniehall14
Medium Poster
Posts: 76
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:46 am
Local Beach: Kite Point/Princeton Point, Robinson's Island
Style: Freeride
Gear: 8M Takoon Chrono
10M Ocean Rodeo Razor
12 Switch Nitro
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 33 times
Been thanked: 10 times

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby Donniehall14 » Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:23 am

I thought this was an interesting comment on their Facebook page. Different then all the rest which were angry costumers.

"We made contrary experiences with the Customer service of #Best Kiteboarding 🙂 A few weeks Ahso, a friend of mine and I took a trip into the sun of Spain for a few days to escape the gray sky in Northern Germany. And on this occasion, we also wanted to find out what lies behind the mysterious shipping address of the current Best products.
Does Best still exist? Are their products directly from China, as some people say here? Is there any customer service at all?
And most importantly - will there be a product release in 2019?
We arrived with all these questions and after half an hour we reached a rather deserted, inconspicuous industrial area. When we reached the exact address, we stood in a backyard - surrounded by the offices of young, unknown startups. We looked around and couldn´t find Best Kiteboarding at first, so we asked a nice gatekeeper if he knows this company.
At that point in time, we did not believe in "real company headquarters" or a warehouse anymore.
But to our surprise, the cheerful employee brought us directly to a somewhat hidden iron door with a clear inscription: "Best Kiteboarding. Ride with us."
After ringing the doorbell, an employee of the kite brand opened the door. And he was just as surprised as we were. We introduced ourselves and said why we were there, Carlos told us why Best had suffered such heavy losses in the past years. How a production error has brought one of the market leaders to their knees and how difficult it is today to put an end to all the gossip.
We also asked about new products - he proudly told us that the first products, including the freeride bomb "Roca", will be presented in early 2019. and so they did:)
Likewise, a release of the legendary TS is being worked on and the Directionals are also on top of the TO DO list.
No one thinks about an end of Best Kiteboarding. On the contrary, he was very happy about our visit and that there are still Customer in Germany. After our interview, we received a handful of freebies and a happy farewell.
So - in a nutshell -there is a warehouse in Barcelona, ​​where besides spare parts a lot of boards and various accessories are stored and shipped.
And yes, there is customer service - and they are very nice!
We would like to thank #Best Kiteboarding again for the great day & the lovely gifts! And we are looking forward to test the new #Best Roca!"

The 2 for 1 deals are great. The only catch seems to be a $200 "handling fee" and some crazy shipping prices. That's what kind of turned me away. I'm all for better deals on kiteboarding. If I could buy a new 2014 TS with good materials and valves that didn't come off I would do it. Who needs "newly" redesigned kites every year.

User avatar
Toby
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 50343
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2001 1:00 am
Kiting since: 2000
Weight: 95 kg
Local Beach: Cumbuco, Brazil
Barra do Cauipe, Brazil
Favorite Beaches: same
Style: Airstyle
Gear: Rebel 2015 18
Brand Affiliation: None.
Location: World (KF Admin)
Has thanked: 831 times
Been thanked: 2364 times
Contact:

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby Toby » Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:27 am

Their best advertising right now would be going public with who is their team and who is in charge.

Not saying anything takes away credibility.

Plus using the GKA logo on their site and saying they are member of it, but they are not, is doubtful.

So if anyone is reading this from current Best, be advised !

PS: thx for the Info Donnie ! Good to know they are still alive.

Best-Kiteboarding
Rare Poster
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 2:23 pm
Gear: Best Kite, Best Board, Best Bar and Best Harness.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby Best-Kiteboarding » Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:35 pm

Dear Kiteforum Community,

As Jamie-NYC requested here is an statement from us. So far we’ve been reading the opinions from people but nobody ever asked the subject to chime in so we observed in silence. Unfortunately we do not have the resources to be here more frequently so we’ll try to be as informative as possible with this one post. Please excuse if we will not get back to each following post.

First, the company is not bankrupt in receivership or what have you. All of these things are public record and you would find it simply by searching the web.
Second, there is surely some people who wish we were dead. It’s mainly those people that previously loved us, but once we questioned if this is a balanced relationship they fell out of love... all of you know how your Ex talks about you after the gig.
Third, when reading all the great conspiracies it feels almost like working for the CIA or something more exciting than the kite industry. Reality is a little dull in comparison. Most companies have their ups and downs and it’s amazing to see how resilient organisations are. Most of the guys who are working in the company have been here for 10 years, no one less than five years. We do work with experts in certain areas where we don’t have the skills in-house. All of us here feel that the brand deserves a brighter future and that’s what we are trying to achieve. For that we’ve restructured the business from top to bottom and are now happily following our new path. From a business point of view (don’t want to bore you with details here) it’s already looking solid. We are serving many happy customers each day and our key indicators are showing in a good direction. We are a lean and happy business today, ready to do business with people that share our vision.
Fourth, we’ve looked at the market for some time and concluded that for us it’s time to do things differently making it public with a post on our website in June 2017. Everybody has to take their own decision and what is valid for us might not be valid for someone else. We believe in serving customers with good quality gear at fair prices. That’s all we focus on today.

Last but not least, just like the girls quoted in this thread that did not want to believe rumors and opinions but went out get their own facts we invite you to come and say hello when you are in the area. We’ve been in the same place since 2007 and it’s Bolivia 340, Local 15 08019 Barcelona, Spain. If this is too much of a trip I suggest you follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter. We announce pretty much anything worth knowing there, and would even do so if it’s our last thank you and good bye.
These users thanked the author Best-Kiteboarding for the post (total 5):
JakeFarley (Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:58 pm) • Donniehall14 (Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:59 pm) • windsuks (Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:03 pm) • Massivemick (Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:55 pm) • Kees (Thu Jan 24, 2019 5:33 am)
Rating: 15.15%

User avatar
Toby
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 50343
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2001 1:00 am
Kiting since: 2000
Weight: 95 kg
Local Beach: Cumbuco, Brazil
Barra do Cauipe, Brazil
Favorite Beaches: same
Style: Airstyle
Gear: Rebel 2015 18
Brand Affiliation: None.
Location: World (KF Admin)
Has thanked: 831 times
Been thanked: 2364 times
Contact:

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby Toby » Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:43 pm

Thx guys for clearing this up 👍🏻

Could you tell us who is the team now?

Who owns it, who runs it, who is the designer etc?

I think this is a valuable information for future customers.

Good luck for all.
These users thanked the author Toby for the post:
Massivemick (Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:57 pm)
Rating: 3.03%

pj sofine
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1022
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2011 2:21 am
Kiting since: 2001
Style: silly
Gear: naish pivots 9,11, rpm 7,8,10,12 cf raptor ltd 136,140
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 79 times
Been thanked: 56 times

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby pj sofine » Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:04 am

I don't think anyone would be bored by the structure of the business. I don't understand "Unfortunately we do not have the resources to be here more frequently so we’ll try to be as informative as possible with this one post ", it takes a few minutes to take a look and make a short reply. Hope it works out for company and happy customers.
These users thanked the author pj sofine for the post:
Toby (Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:50 am)
Rating: 3.03%

dice
Frequent Poster
Posts: 214
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2018 6:05 pm
Style: Freeride
Gear: Hadlow ID
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 25 times

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby dice » Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:52 am

I'm pretty sure the content of a comment here won't be written by a single person at Best. Or at least reviewed by multiple persons.
It's very important for them to make no mistakes right now. So it's very plausible that it will take them a while to formulate a comment.

Best-Kiteboarding
Rare Poster
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 2:23 pm
Gear: Best Kite, Best Board, Best Bar and Best Harness.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 9 times

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby Best-Kiteboarding » Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:22 pm

Dear Forum Community,

we'll do our best to be as transparent as possible while respecting privacy of the individuals.
@ Toby: There is actually not too many changes on team and ownership. There is less people because the new structure requires less people and high structural cost lead to high prices. As previously, our designers are contractors that we hire for specific job.Imagine that for example on a kite you have several guys working together, one takes care of shape, the other is in charge of inflation system, the third one is a QC specialist. If all of them would be full time employees they soon would get bored here. The individuals are mostly people working for various companies in the industry and do not want a public profile. We have a general policy that we will prefer to buy than make. This means that we'll by standard parts e.g. Iron heart, Boston valve vs. creating our own solutions. Our experience tell us that standard parts are more intuitive to use for the rider and spare parts are easier provided.
@pj sofine: The structure is lean today. One operating company named Best Kiteboarding SL with one central warehouse in Barcelona. Here are some facts: Our CCC went from 180d to 10d, our ROCE is now in the high 20ies, Our stock turnover days is between 20d and 30d. Our SKU count reduced by approx. 240%, AR went from millions to zero.
@dice: any public statement we make we'll try to make sure it does not reflect the opinion of an individual.
These users thanked the author Best-Kiteboarding for the post (total 4):
pj sofine (Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:42 pm) • Massivemick (Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:56 pm) • Donniehall14 (Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:33 pm) • THOR_NADO (Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:23 pm)
Rating: 12.12%

User avatar
Toby
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 50343
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2001 1:00 am
Kiting since: 2000
Weight: 95 kg
Local Beach: Cumbuco, Brazil
Barra do Cauipe, Brazil
Favorite Beaches: same
Style: Airstyle
Gear: Rebel 2015 18
Brand Affiliation: None.
Location: World (KF Admin)
Has thanked: 831 times
Been thanked: 2364 times
Contact:

Re: Best bankrupt?

Postby Toby » Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:46 pm

Ok, thx for the info guys 👍
These users thanked the author Toby for the post:
Massivemick (Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:57 pm)
Rating: 3.03%


Return to “Kitesurfing”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: andylc, Bartolo, Bing [Bot], consumer, gl, IvanoKite, KVL, nixmatters, nothing2seehere, rnelias, Saski, Sers, thewindego, vladi elthve, Xtream, Yahoo [Bot], zegermans and 361 guests