Rich Energy drop Haas. No...Really. Seriously...

[Adrian W]

JonChalk said:

t400ble said:

https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...

Update on the liquidation

48 million owed! - or am I reading wrong

That's just one creditor (Haas?, given the size of the amount).



i reckon it's 6M + 54M + 8M identified but he liquidator.

The Liquidator will make sure he gets paid before any creditors,

Surely the police should be investigating the people involved in RE, the product never hit the shelves, so where did the cash go, there are rules about these things. you take a huge salary or dividend and the company goes bust it is at the least misbehaving, at worse a planned fraud.

[StevieBee]

Presuming Ed said:

StevieBee said:

In the 90s, there was an energy drink called Hype (in fact there still is only it isn't sold in the UK). The company was set up by one of the guys behind the Hard Rock Caf . They accumulated a shed-load of investment most of which was spent on extreme sports sponsorship including F1. From the outside, it appeared as if they were advertising a product that didn't exist. In fact, they were building brand awareness and using their sponsorship to gain access to various distribution channels around the world - sponsoring Benetton, who at the time were also sponsored by AutoGrill (the Italian Little Chef) and Kingfisher - accessing Indian distribution channels. Clever and would have worked well but issues with production led to the company folding - Betrand Gachot and a few other purchased it and still run it as far as I know.

I had thought that Rich Energy were running to the same play book. But I really think they would have shown their hand by now.

Interesting, I had no idea Gachot had anything to do with Hype, or that Hype were still a thing. He was a great driver back in the day, just in the wrong teams at the wrong time. Less said about the whole road rage thing of course.

IIRC, he was given his share in the company in lieu of some sponsorship money he never got paid when the original company folded.

Hype are still very much a thing and active still F1. They were a wing sponsor for Racing Point pre AM takeover and I think they're still sponsoring one of the teams today. More info here if you're interested: https://hype.com/since-1994/

As I said, in the early days of Rich Energy, I had thought they were following the same path but as time goes on, it's difficult to see the whole thing as anything other than some clever scam. That said, if one day you walked into a supermarket to find the shelves stacked with the stuff, i'd imagine every can would sell straight away, if for no reason other than curiosity.

[Fundoreen]

Rich Energy seem to be sponsoring a BSB team this year. They won a race as well so must be working. They should have started small like that before the F1 thing.
Shows how greedy for money F1 teams are that they jump on any drunken boast.

[Gary C]

Adrian W said:

the product never hit the shelves,

Humm

It sort of did (unless you mean physical, supermarket shelves, then fair enough) but not in a big way

and it tasted crap.

Edited by Gary C on Thursday 19th May 16:03

[JonChalk]

It illustrates the lunacy of company / corporate ownership law; shut one business down owing tens of millions, just start another company to do exactly the same thing with the same product, rack up the debts again, rinse, repeat....

...I suppose if you can find enough suckers who believe you've changed, got real money this time, won't fleece you for all your cash...well....

..I wouldn't get involved with RE if they rocked up with a barrowful of untraceable, uncut diamonds.

[CoolHands]

Is it a real debt though? If I promise you 10 quid to put my name on your car and don’t pay it, it cost you the opportunity cost of having someone else paying for that space. But if there was no one else who wanted to pay for that space then it’s no real loss is it. At the time Mazapin and his dad weren’t around so although haas will claim they had sponsors out the door, they really didn’t.

[FourWheelDrift]

Rich Energy's funding explained - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9udNrOh5DyA

[JonChalk]

CoolHands said:

Is it a real debt though? If I promise you 10 quid to put my name on your car and don’t pay it, it cost you the opportunity cost of having someone else paying for that space. But if there was no one else who wanted to pay for that space then it’s no real loss is it. At the time Mazapin and his dad weren’t around so although haas will claim they had sponsors out the door, they really didn’t.

a. Depends what the contract said, and
b. If I go and spend the 10 quid you promised me (via a legally binding contract) on the expectation you were an upstanding citizen and would do what you said you'd do, I'm now 10 quid down as a result of your duplicitousness - and it's all your fault. I want my money, because the guy I promised it to in return for real work, wants his 10 quid.

[CoolHands]

Also the ides that they were / are spending years building brand awareness before they finally launch is pretty ridiculous IMO. Who / why would anyone fund millions going out for years with nothing come in? For an energy drink. Hardly a unique product.

[Gary C]

CoolHands said:

Is it a real debt though? If I promise you 10 quid to put my name on your car and don’t pay it, it cost you the opportunity cost of having someone else paying for that space. But if there was no one else who wanted to pay for that space then it’s no real loss is it. At the time Mazapin and his dad weren’t around so although haas will claim they had sponsors out the door, they really didn’t.

I think they spent money expecting that income and so incurred a debt on Hass that they didn't expect to have when Rich Energy failed to actually give them any money.

But, still can't believe an F1 business could be taken in by such an unbelievable tt.

[CoolHands]

That’s true Jon I hadn’t thought about it like that. In other words they should have had safeguards in place before spending his Monopoly money!