I came across this on 2 news-sites:

Sales were bad ... costs increased (3.8 million Euro of loss in 2006)

They asked financial help from the banks ... otherwise they will close down their factory (with 1200 employees) ...

Source:
http://www.autoblog.nl/archive/2007/...-aan#post-8312
http://www.automobilwoche.de/apps/pb...702060376/1060

This is not only bad for BBS, but also for BBS Motorsport (who makes wheels for Porsche!) and companies like VW, Audi, Porsche, Volvo, Techart, Wiessman, Lexus, ...

(and don't neg rep me because I bring "bad" news ... these days you have to think at least 3 times before posting ... and I know it's in the wrong place .. I didn't knew the right place)

 

Aww man...I love the 80's. If you were rolling 15" BBS wheels back then, you were "the Man". Today's changing market/competition and low profit margins finally did them in.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. First Kinesis, now this? All I have left is Jogblond (or however you spell it), CCW, and Fikse.

 

The fact that companies like Lexani and HRE still exist and BBS and Kinesis go under just has me so heated.

 

i love bbs's i have had RC's, CH's, LM's, RS's, and the other stock vw wheels made by bbs. i am soo bummed right now.

 

If only I had money to help them

 

Truer words have never been spoken...

People prefer flashy crap to quality.

 

Well, at least we know Hummers will still have 22's but club racers are going to have a tough time getting decent wheels. Worst news I've seen today.

 

All the more reason to buy my gangster racing rims now while their available?

*End Shamless Plug*

Seriously though. It makes me wonder a bit about BBS's business plan. Do they really need to have blow as much as they do on things like marketing? I think just about everyone else in the aftermarket world knows BBS is synonymous with high-performance (or in the case of their motorsport devision, hyperformance), i dont think they've retooled their factories in any major ways that i'm aware of (same wheels have been made for the longest time now, maybe retooling their racing rims division to switch from mag centers to aluminium, but that's about it).

BBS is also the OEM supplier to quite a few companies (Used to be Mazda, currently Porsche, Ferrari, And a bunch of others).

Then again, it could just be an indication of changing markets, people want the "baller status" and will pay a premium for it. I have no doubt that the performance minded segment is definitly shrinking as more and more people build show cars and even entry level track days become more expensive to run with saftey equipment.

A sad day for certain.

Whose left as far as racing wheel manufacturers go for higher end cars?
- VOLK
- Jongebloed
- ATS
- Champion
- O.Z
- Dymag

And if you factor in the asian brands:
- Koenig
- er...can't think of any others right now but there's prolly 3 or 4 good ones.

When you compare that to the amount of "bling rims" the market seems to be dwindeling indeed.

 

Omar, from what I read in the poorly translated version of one of those articles. It reads more like BBS signed contracts with the major German companies for wheels and then due to the rising price of aluminum start losing money on every set of wheels they delivered.

 

A very sad day for car guys and motorsports in general.

 

they should just send the work over to china.

 

are they a public co???

 

If I see my old wheels on Ebay as a collectors item I'll....

 

Most manufacturers do use Chinese labor(overseas).. we just don"t know about it...

Alex, I should have bought ur wheels... LOL