Suittruck was declared bankrupt at the beginning of last week. The 41-year-old founder of the company confirms this to RTL Z.
Mobile clothing workshop
Suittruck was founded in 2016 by fashion entrepreneur Rutger Fleming, who had become famous four years earlier for his participation in the television program The Bachelor. Vlaming has been active in the fashion world since 2013, with his own clothing brands Frederik George and later W. Oak.
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During a visit to a festival with food trucks, the entrepreneur came up with the idea of driving a mobile clothing workshop to companies, so that employees could measure a tailor-made suit.
Big ambitions
The initiative for the so-called Suittruck generated a lot of publicity, and a prize for the best retail innovation of 2019.
Fleming had great ambitions. In the Netherlands, for example, he wanted to grow quickly from two to eight trucks via franchisees, and also start elsewhere in Europe. “I also want to launch in America within five years,” the entrepreneur told RTL Z.
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The most recent data that Suittruck filed with the Chamber of Commerce shows that the company has not been able to realize these ambitions.
Bankruptcy
At the end of 2019, so before the outbreak of corona, the company with negative equity of 320,000 euros was technically bankrupt. In 2020 Suittruck booked a loss of almost 115,000 euros. As a result, shareholders’ equity fell even further, to almost 435,000 euros negative.
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The latest annual accounts therefore contain a warning that ‘serious uncertainties regarding the continuity of the organization’ exist. Now it turns out that Suittruck indeed did not make it. The company went on April 5 bankrupt.
Watching cat out of the tree
Fleming points to various reasons for the bankruptcy. “In the first place, the Dutch consumer always looks out of the tree when it comes to innovations. People are quite afraid to do something different or to opt for luxury. At Suittruck I was often told that it is best to give the car a could continue down the street, because the neighbors didn’t have to see it.”
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According to the entrepreneur, this means that Suittruck’s success required a lot of patience. “That wasn’t too bad, because I’m a go-getter.”
Corona final blow
According to Vlaming, Corona delivered the final blow to the company. “As a result, our investor withdrew, and we no longer had the patience that was needed. I can’t say much about that, but from a 2-0 lead we came at a huge disadvantage.”
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In addition, strikes relations such as PwC and ABN Amro their external contacts, says the entrepreneur. “We used to have an agreement that those companies would announce internally if we were outside with our truck. When that was no longer possible, an important part of our marketing was lost. The entire market also shifted to ‘smart casual’ during that period. so no suits, just a neat jacket.”
Doing business on quicksand
Vlaming: “All in all, it increasingly felt like I was doing business on quicksand. The more I moved, the further I sank. At a certain point, that also affected my body, so I actually stood still more than when I started working used to be.”
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Fleming says he has no concrete plans for the future at the moment. “We had to sell the trucks through the auction, and I have no plans for a restart. What the future holds is still a question mark at the moment.”
Curator Zeki Korkmaz of Houthoff Advocaten says he is not yet able to comment on the causes of the bankruptcy, or on the chances of a possible restart. “I have only just been appointed as curator and I first want to have all the facts clear before I make statements about it.”
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