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The founder and CEO of Biktrix — a Saskatoon based e-bike company — is devastated after a shipping container with 150 bikes valued at more than $500,000 was stolen from its warehouse in Delta, B.C.
“We (got) hit with a heist. It’s pretty bad,” Roshan Thomas said Monday.
Surveillance footage from the Delta warehouse posted on the company’s social media showed a semi pulling the shipping container out of the lot at around 1 a.m. last Tuesday.
“It’s pretty crazy, because the value of the goods are pretty high,” Thomas said, adding several of the stolen bikes were already sold to customers who now need a refund from the company.
“It’s like a double whammy for cash,” he said. “It’s pretty frustrating for sure.”
Roshan Thomas, founder and CEO of Saskatoon-based Biktrix, posted a video on social media seeking public assistance after $500,000 worth of e-bikes were stolen from the company. (Biktrix/Facebook)
The stolen bikes were the first shipment of the company’s latest design, which took the company over two years to create. It’s known as the Juggernaut FS Step-Thru.
Thomas explained the particular model is the only one of its kind in North America, and can be very fairly easy to spot.
Biktrix was founded by Thomas 11 years ago and its largest showroom is in Saskatoon.
Thomas said the stolen goods won’t affect the sales of other models from the stores, but he was hoping to use the revenue from the latest models to bring in more bikes.
“Because we are a cash-tight company, we have to use money generated from sales to get more bikes in, and usually we are able to do that about three or four times a year,” he said.
Thomas predicts the loss of the bikes will cost the company $4 million in lost revenue by the end of the year, noting the container also held samples of newer designs that the company can’t launch as planned.
Now, Thomas has taken the matter to social media. He’s asking the public for any information on the stolen goods, and to reach out to Biktrix if the bikes are spotted.
Although it’s a setback for the company, Thomas said he’s hopeful that with his message the bikes can be found.
“I think we’ll survive this one, but a lot of companies in our shoes would not have been able to,” he said.
