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Bicycle Retailer:Serotta, Blue and Mad Fiber consolidated under Divine Cycling Group wrote:Serotta and Blue Competition Cycles are joining Mad Fiber Wheels under the umbrella of the Divine Cycling Group, an investment group formed last year. DCG bought Mad Fiber, its first industry acquisition, in February.

Terms of the agreement were not released except that Blue and Serotta shareholders will become shareholders in DCG and be represented on DCG's board.

Serotta was founded in 1972 by Ben Serotta. The company has been through several iterations. Last year Serotta announced it had "partnered" with financial services group Bradway Capital.

Likewise, Georgia-based Blue was acquired by an equity firm, Lake Rudd Capital Partner, late last year.

In a statement, DCG founder Gary Ullman said, “Collectively, these companies bring together manufacturing expertise across materials and product categories and extensive aerodynamics expertise. They combine American manufacturing knowledge with significant experience operating in Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia. The three businesses’ sales forces cover all major cycling markets, and utilize the best combinations of traditional distributors, dedicated sales offices, trading partners and representatives.

"And they are now brought together under a board that has world class experience in acquisition and strategic integration such that they will be able to better attract investment, more rapidly grow product lines and profitability, and benefit from combined strengths while maintaining individual brand identities under their current management teams. This, as DCG Inc continues its commitment to growth through acquisition and further builds the company.”

Ullman said each company will maintain its current production facilities.

Watch for more on this story Wednesday.

http://saratogian.com/articles/2013/08/08/news/doc520432b2452a6615658295.txt?viewmode=fullstory wrote:...
In a press release earlier this week, the new management reported it is aiming to expand production at the Saratoga Springs facility. Under a plan to restructure the business, they plan to produce bicycles for other companies.

This news came as a surprise to Ben Serotta, who started the firm in 1972, and to Watkins, who came on board as DCG’s interim CEO in October 2012.

“We had no clue about the contract manufacturing,” Watkins said, adding that direction might prove difficult for DCG. “The Serotta craftsmen are wonderful people. I have the deepest respect and admiration for them. They build in bikes what Ferrari builds in cars. Ferrari wouldn’t want to build some little Chevy car.”

Serotta and Watkins said they were startled again when they were both terminated without cause — Sunday and Monday, respectively.

“My cell phone rang, and I instinctively answered it,” Serotta wrote in a letter to The Saratogian Thursday. “One of the current company owners was on the other end, and he coldly stated, ‘I am terminating you. Your email password has been changed and your building access code has been deleted. You can arrange to get your personal things Tuesday.’ And with that (no cause was given), my life at Serotta, the company, came to an abrupt end.”

Watkins said his own dismissal came by way of a voice mail and a text.

...

http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2013/08/07/new-management-contract-revenue-part.html wrote:...
The company, which last week laid off 40 percent of its workforce, became part of Divine Cycling Group Inc. in mid-June. DCG has implemented a restructuring plan that includes seeking contracts to build bikes for other brands, said Brian Case, a DCG director.
...
Ben Serotta, who founded Serotta in 1972, left the company as part of the management transition. CEO Bill Watkins, who joined Serotta less than a year ago, also has resigned.

...

http://redkiteprayer.com/2013/08/serotta-beheaded/ wrote:So what of Divine Cycling Group’s other properties, Mad Fiber and Blue Competition Cycles? Well, Mad Fiber reports that all is well, nothing to see here. Maybe things are fine, but it’s hard to take that statement on face value once you read what Steven Harad, CEO of Blue, wrote in the comments following Serotta’s letter to the cycling community.

“Here’s hoping we aren’t next but it looks like we are. Lets catch up Ben Serotta.”

Word in the industry is that Blue has a shipping container full of bikes that they can’t pay for, which brings us back to one of the initial reports about just how bad things were at Serotta. Serotta said he had no operating capital for the company. An injection of capital which was to have materialized, did not.

Bustednuckle in http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?p=1314521#post1314521 wrote:Posted on another forum..a somewhat contradictory view from those 'oh, how sad', comments elsewhere.

Quote-"Originally Posted by weatherman View Post
Yes, it certainly does seem there is 'another' side to this story--the following was posted by Howard Berkowitz on Facebook this morning (in response to comments about the Serotta situation). Recall that Howard was the interim CEO of Serotta and was rather unceremoniously fired by Bill upon his arrival. (From what I understand, I think he got just about the same treatment that Ben/Bill received, perhaps worse as I think his access was just shut down and no one even told him about it.)

Pasted comments:


Rich, for whatever reason I cannot leave a comment on the story about Ben Serotta in which you mentioned my name. Here is my take:
Unfortunately, in the years I have known Ben I have learned that the truth is a vague thing to him and the messaging serves his personal purpose. Without a doubt, he is one of the greatest bike innovators of the modern age, although he has done little innovating in the last decade. That said, his skills in running the business are non existent. The current owners took the company from the bank right before foreclosure do to that mismanagement in early 2012.
As far as the claims in the "letter"; he was not fired "without cause". Actually there was "cause" and I understand that it was detailed in the written correspondence he received to that effect. Secondly, Bill Watkins does not have the skill set to run the company. In fact, since he arrived less than one year ago, he alienated the entire staff (all of the artisans), wasted money on painting the inside of the factory and other such nonsense, and did not put any effort into building revenue with actual an SALES EFFORT. No on at 41 Geyser likes or respects him except Ben. That says it all.
The fact is that Ben and Bill were seemingly bent on a management takeover and were devaluing the company so they could get it cheap. That was the reason for the unauthorized, negative interviews they both gave to industry rags a couple of weeks ago.
I am only one guy and this is only my opinion so take it for what it is worth."