Financial deficit and decline in revenue for Cowboy in 2023
Despite the ambition to achieve its first profits in 2025, the Belgian electric bike manufacturer Cowboy ends the year 2023 with a significant deficit and a revenue drop of nearly 20% compared to 2022. Cowboy, often inclined to communicate about its new products or attract customers from its competitor VanMoof, remains discreet about its financial figures. And for good reason, the results are not encouraging.
Significant degradation of equity capital
The financial report of 2023 reveals a deterioration of Cowboy’s equity capital, going from -8.4 million euros in 2022 to -22.4 million euros in 2023, despite a capital increase of 7.8 million euros.
Decline in revenue
Even more worrying, Cowboy records for the first time a decline in its revenue, which drops from 40.9 million euros in 2022 to 33.7 million euros in 2023, a decrease of nearly 18%. The manufacturer explains this decrease by an exceptional year 2022 due to numerous pre-orders at the end of 2021, contrasting with a year 2023 marked by the discontinuation of the Cowboy 3 model and the launch of the new Cowboy Cruiser. Cowboy has also chosen to focus on increasing margins rather than sales volume, also reducing its employee-related expenses from 7.3 M€ in 2022 to 6.2 M€ in 2023.
Gross margin increase, but significant losses
Cowboy’s strategy has partially borne fruit, with the gross margin increasing from 10.3% in 2022 to 17.9% in 2023. However, the company remains in deficit with an operating loss of 19.3 M€ in 2023, despite a 28% decrease compared to the 26.1 M€ of 2022.
Profitability goal for 2025
Adrien Roose, co-founder of Cowboy, remains optimistic and promises a gross profit margin of 40% for 2024. He asserts that the bikes produced in the second half of the year will reach these margins, and plans to break even in the last six months of the year. Roose anticipates a gross profit margin of 50% in 2025, with the company finally in the black. Nevertheless, these statements remain to be verified, as Cowboy has already made profitability promises for 2024 that do not seem achievable before next year.
To meet its financial needs, Cowboy plans to conduct a new round of funding before the end of the year.
