Cycling UK Forum

awavey wrote: . . . frankly Id be amazed if it didnt near enough bankrupt them

According to the organisers on a local TV interview, they are fully covered by the insurance payout

Pete Owens wrote:It wouldn't make sense for an events company to insure against cancellation due to weather. They are better off absorbing the losses themselves. Cancellation due to weather is a reasonably routine occurrence so plan a 5% budget surplus to cover the occasional loss, rather than pay 10% to an insurance company to cover that loss plus the insurance company profit.

Not necessarily. Even the very largest businesses that can easily absorb losses from insurable events will still opt to get insurance cover if there is a reasonably competitive market for the cover they want. Many of the largest corporates are far bigger and generate more profit than the insurance companies from whom they buy cover.

For many of them it's not a question of the business being able to cope with an unpredictable sudden financial loss, but a way of managing cashflow and avoiding having to maintain reserves against such losses when the business would rather invest such capital elsewhere.

Ironically, it now looks like it will just be wet 'till 1pm, not very windy, and then a nice afternoon

squeaker wrote:Ironically, it now looks like it will just be wet 'till 1pm, not very windy, and then a nice afternoon

I have sometimes wondered about the damage to public health done by what seems like often over-pessimistic weather forecasts and all the exhortations not to go out in mildly windy weather for fear a tree falls on you. Are forecasters too afraid of being ridiculed like Michael Fish?

mjr wrote:

squeaker wrote:Ironically, it now looks like it will just be wet 'till 1pm, not very windy, and then a nice afternoon

I have sometimes wondered about the damage to public health done by what seems like often over-pessimistic weather forecasts and all the exhortations not to go out in mildly windy weather for fear a tree falls on you. Are forecasters too afraid of being ridiculed like Michael Fish?

in effect yes .... and also they know if they get it slightly wrong and people do get injured etc they get the blame. But what happened was the system moved a bit further south than expected so like here in Brum, what was forecasted a very wet day today is just a breezy sunny one.

Remeber when ride london had that awful day and they had to close off Box hill etc, from memory didn't someone have a very serious accident on the descent. The problem is experienced cyclists like most of us would ride in that if we had something planned. However these mass events attract those less experienced and they have to be protected.

One thing I find is I now ride quite often on midnight on a Friday night and that is excellent for what turns out to be almost like a closed road event

CSM Active's unaudited accounts have been published by Companies House for 2017.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/comp ... ng-history

See Total Exemption Full Accounts to download the pdf.

That’s some loss on one event and with the cancellation this year I hope their insurance covered it

ianrobo wrote:That’s some loss on one event and with the cancellation this year I hope their insurance covered it

As far as I can see, CSM Active ran two events in the year covered by those accounts: Velo Birmingham and the London 10 Mile Run. It is a hefty loss, though: £1.1M on a revenue of £2M. Its ultimate parent company, Chime Holdings Ltd, had consolidated revenue of half a BILLION and net losses before tax of £120M, so I guess CSM Active is just small change to them. Even so, it's hard to see why they'd keep it going if it's hurting that much. They claim to be running Velo Birmigham and Velo South next year so maybe they hope it'll come good in the end.

Ok so they can do the losses but never will be that profitable ?

AndyK wrote:

ianrobo wrote:That’s some loss on one event and with the cancellation this year I hope their insurance covered it

As far as I can see, CSM Active ran two events in the year covered by those accounts: Velo Birmingham and the London 10 Mile Run. It is a hefty loss, though: £1.1M on a revenue of £2M. Its ultimate parent company, Chime Holdings Ltd, had consolidated revenue of half a BILLION and net losses before tax of £120M, so I guess CSM Active is just small change to them. Even so, it's hard to see why they'd keep it going if it's hurting that much. They claim to be running Velo Birmigham and Velo South next year so maybe they hope it'll come good in the end.

Unless one of the ‘great white chiefs’ is doing this as a personal vanity project, and really doesn’t care about it being a ‘loss leader’, I can’t see any board approving these events again.

Marcus Aurelius wrote:

AndyK wrote:

ianrobo wrote:That’s some loss on one event and with the cancellation this year I hope their insurance covered it

As far as I can see, CSM Active ran two events in the year covered by those accounts: Velo Birmingham and the London 10 Mile Run. It is a hefty loss, though: £1.1M on a revenue of £2M. Its ultimate parent company, Chime Holdings Ltd, had consolidated revenue of half a BILLION and net losses before tax of £120M, so I guess CSM Active is just small change to them. Even so, it's hard to see why they'd keep it going if it's hurting that much. They claim to be running Velo Birmigham and Velo South next year so maybe they hope it'll come good in the end.

Unless one of the ‘great white chiefs’ is doing this as a personal vanity project, and really doesn’t care about it being a ‘loss leader’, I can’t see any board approving these events again.

Tax write off?

I know the Birmingham Velo event rubbed a lot of villagers up the wrong way, can't cross the road outside their house for 4 hours plus.
And most of the route was in Worcestershire and not in Birmingham. Which went down like a lead balloon too.

I understood it was going to happen again but over a different route.?

9494arnold wrote:I know the Birmingham Velo event rubbed a lot of villagers up the wrong way.

Just a few locals, who tried ( and failed ) to affect the ride with a few gallons of oil, and some nails.

9494arnold wrote:I understood it was going to happen again but over a different route.?

That’s right. It’s going South East towards Coventry this time ( good luck on the cobbled streets if it rains )

I know a few folk who live on the route, they were universally unimpressed, but mostly far too well mannered to take direct action.