{"id":228623,"date":"2025-10-20T23:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T23:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228623\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T23:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T23:42:12","slug":"its-going-to-be-a-pretty-bold-move-rapha-announces-expansive-new-team-usa-sponsorship-as-the-company-undergoes-102m-write-down-in-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228623\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s going to be a pretty bold move’ \u2013 Rapha announces expansive new Team USA sponsorship, as the company undergoes \u00a3102m write-down in value"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rapha has unveiled an optimistic vision of its future strategy as the company reveals a second successive year of operating losses. Following the news of the brand’s split with EF Education\u2013EasyPost<\/a>, Rapha has announced an expansive partnership with USA Cycling for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Rapha’s 2024 results will soon be public, and reveal a turbulent picture for the company as operating losses sit at \u00a317.2m, with an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation – which more accurately reflects a business’s financial income in a year) loss of \u00a32.6m.<\/p>\n

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The results came amid a drop in overall turnover, with total turnover sitting at \u00a396m – down from \u00a3110m in the 2023 financial year.<\/p>\n

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Rapha’s CEO Fran Millar spoke to a handful of journalists in the Rapha headquarters in Archway, London, in advance of the financial results, explaining that she was “one year into a multi-year turnaround.\u201d Millar had only been CEO for a handful of months during the 2024 reporting period.<\/p>\n

Millar and Rapha CFO Michelle Woolaghan explained that the drop in revenue was partly down to \u201ccoming off the discounting drug\u201d, as Rapha aims to rebuild customer quality and full-price sell-through.<\/p>\n

The most striking figure in Rapha\u2019s latest results is a major write-down by its parent company, Carpegna Ltd, which has reduced the carrying value \u2014 essentially, what an original investment is judged to be worth today \u2014 from \u00a3169 million to around \u00a365 million. This isn\u2019t a cash loss, but an accounting adjustment: the board has cut the value it records for Rapha by \u00a3102 million at the holding-company level. While largely an exercise in bookkeeping, it marks a reassessment of the brand\u2019s worth since its 2017 acquisition by Walmart heirs Steuart and Tom Walton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe completed a funding round in May 2025,” revealed Woolaghan, stressing that there had been more investment in the business to move back to profitable growth with a target to be EBITDA-positive by 2027.<\/p>\n

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Despite the gloomy outlook in places, though, Rapha aims to make a journey back to profitability and to restake its position as the market leader under Millar’s tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransformation takes time,” Millar explained. “The strategic decisions we are taking\u2026 will enable us to become profitable again as a business and support our vision to use the transformative power of cycling to make a difference to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transformation is focused on several areas, but perhaps most notable is Rapha’s desire to reclaim its former place in the market as the byword for premium cycling kit.<\/p>\n

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“The big focus here is reclaiming market share in those markets where we’ve got where we either used to have historical dominance,” Millar said. Asked whether this represented a price point as well as geographic dominance, Millar explained, “I think we have to reclaim the higher premium.”<\/p>\n

Of course, the Core range, and the entry point to cycling, will remain important to Rapha, Millar emphasises.<\/p>\n

“How we sell our entry price point, how we market our entry price point, and to whom, is really important, but we absolutely have to retain it within our range,” Millar explained, “That doesn’t mean we’re for beginners.”<\/p>\n

The new strategy and financial results come at an interesting point, as they coincide with Rapha co-founder Simon Mottram’s departure from the business as director. However, the timing is purely coincidental, Millar explains. \u201cWhilst he stepped off the board \u2013 his own choice \u2013 he\u2019s going to stay as an advisor to me. So he\u2019s quite often around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eyes on 2028<\/p>\n

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\"Rapha\n<\/p>\n

Rapha CEO Fran Millar (Image credit: Rapha\/ Tom Griffiths)<\/p>\n

While the full strategic picture may not be entirely evident yet, the central focus of Rapha’s latest financial update has been the vision for the 2028 Olympic Games, where Rapha will sponsor Team USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vision is to make cycling the most important sport in the world\u2026 there is no greater stage for that ambition than when athletes represent their nation,\u201d Millar explained.<\/p>\n

The sponsorship will run from 2026 to 2029, with the first Rapha x USA Cycling kit landing in January 2026.<\/p>\n

It comes in the wake of the widely reported step back from sponsoring EF Education\u2013EasyPost, a relationship that Millar felt had reached the end of its natural life.<\/p>\n

“I was very clear coming in, I wasn’t going to make any preconceived notions about what we should and shouldn’t be doing,” Millar explained, “But as a customer and as a fan of the sport, I felt that relationship had got tired.”<\/p>\n

“I decided, as part of the new strategic direction, that building towards the LA 28 games, and seeing what the impact of a London Games did on a home nation here with regards to the relationship with cycling, I think LA has the potential to do the same for cycling in the US,” Millar said. “So we’re going to be taking on the partnership of the United States cycling team, and it’s going to be a pretty bold move.”<\/p>\n

The partnership will require a fairly extensive expansion in Rapha’s kit range, as the brand will need to expand into BMX, mountain bike and all varied calibres of Olympic cycling disciplines. Most significantly, the USA Olympic kits will showcase Rapha’s iconic armbands across the entire range of disciplines.<\/p>\n

While the partnership is certainly significant from a branding perspective, it will also play to Rapha’s R&D ambitions.<\/p>\n

“From aerodynamics to thermal regulation, we are relentlessly pursuing every potential advantage for Team USA,” Brendan Quirk, CEO and President of USA Cycling, said. “Rapha is synonymous with innovation at the pinnacle of the sport and can match our ambition. We know that our athletes will be at their best when they compete in Rapha.”<\/p>\n

Millar echoed the importance of aerodynamics and performance, and the opportunity it will offer to sharpen the brand’s research work.<\/p>\n

“I think the last time the EF suit was tested was ’22, that’s an anathema to me in terms of having a high-performance suit that you wouldn’t test every year,” Millar said.<\/p>\n

“You can’t afford to wait two or three years on the track,” she said. “You know it is an environment where every you know millisecond counts, and also where the relationship between the bike, the body, and the air movement is so significant.”<\/p>\n

“So working on the absolute bleeding edge of what the track program is going to be doing, and doing that with our fabrics, our textiles are and our development teams is absolutely core to us.”<\/p>\n

While Rapha’s departure from the WorldTour may seem to impact their visibility at the top of the sport, Millar hinted that a return may not be too far off.<\/p>\n

“I’m not desperate to work with a WorldTour team,” Millar confessed. “I think it’s really important that we have the right WorldTour team that gives us the scope to do things beyond just the WorldTour. And in my view, there’s only one team that has the capability to do that.”<\/p>\n

She added, without revealing any further hints of the would-be team, “That’s the conversation we’re having.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rapha has unveiled an optimistic vision of its future strategy as the company reveals a second successive year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-228623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}