Wright Brothers, the 'Joonggonara of the Bicycle World', Halts Normal Business Cycle... Entering a Virtually 'Unrecoverable' State

By introducing X-ray non-destructive testing to detect micro-cracks inside carbon frames that are difficult to see with the naked eye, 'Wright Brothers', which gained attention as Korea's first premium used bicycle trading platform, has fallen into the worst financial crisis since its founding. Although it was a promising startup that gathered market expectations by introducing an innovative business model that returns carbon credits as points based on riding distance, it is currently confirmed that its normal business cycle has completely stopped as it cannot handle its snowballing deficit and debt.

'Growth Collapse' and an Abnormal Cost-to-Revenue Ratio Exceeding 400%... Fixation of Negative Margins Where Selling More Leads to More Losses

Looking at Wright Brothers' profit and loss flow clearly reveals the company's rapid decline. Wright Brothers' revenue, which was at the 700 million won level in 2019, soared to 3.83 billion won in 2022, driven by the bicycle craze, showing a steep growth trend. However, the growth trend began to falter from 2023 (3.2 billion won), slowed to 2.8 billion won in 2024, and finally recorded only 280 million won in revenue in 2025, a whopping 90% plunge from the previous year. In just a few years, it is experiencing a severe revenue decline where its business base has shrunk to the point of collapse.

An even bigger problem is the collapsed profit structure. Until 2024, products were sold leaving a profit, but in 2025, it fell into an abnormal state where the cost of goods sold (1.24 billion won) grew more than four times larger than the revenue (280 million won), causing the cost-to-revenue ratio to exceed 400%. As a result, a negative margin structure was formed where the more items are sold, the more losses are incurred, leading to a gross loss of approximately 960 million won.

The cause of this phenomenon appears to be the possibility of 'inventory dumping (fire sale)'. The fact that inventory assets, which amounted to 1.19 billion won at the end of 2024, plummeted to the 40 million won level in 2025 in just one year can be inferred as selling off inventory at dirt-cheap prices below cost to generate revenue, rather than normal sales. Currently, it is judged that even the goods to sell have run out, making normal business activities impossible.

[Source: Wright Brothers Website]

Empty Safe, 'Terminal Life Extension' Sustained by Executives' and Employees' Personal Money

The company's liquidity has already gone beyond depletion to the point of bankruptcy. Cash and cash equivalents, which can be immediately monetized, shrank from 210 million won in 2023 to 11 million won in 2024, and have completely dried up to a mere 220,000 won as of 2025. Before discussing surplus and deficit, it is a situation where the immediate problem of survival must be considered. On the other hand, current liabilities, such as short-term borrowings that must be repaid within one year, reach 3 billion won, but current assets to defend against this are only 470 million won, resulting in an extremely worsened current ratio.

As the threshold for loans from external financial institutions has risen, a situation where the company is holding out through capital injections from insiders is also being captured. Among the details of current liabilities, 'short-term borrowings from shareholders, executives, and employees' more than doubled from 720 million won in 2023 to 1.45 billion won in 2025. This means that the CEO and employees are pouring their personal money in the form of suspense receipts, but even this is analyzed to have reached its limit.

The Optical Illusion of Intangible Assets... 83% of Assets are 'Development Costs', Actual Financial State is Even More Gruesome

The financial state on the books is at its worst, but when considering the actual value, the situation is even more pessimistic. As of 2025, Wright Brothers' accumulated deficit soared to negative 11.7 billion won, plunging the company into a state of 'complete capital impairment' where its total equity turned to negative 1.9 billion won. The extreme leverage management, relying entirely on external borrowing such as short-term borrowings (2.8 billion won) and long-term borrowings (2.8 billion won), has faced its limit.

The biggest trigger is the qualitative level of its assets. Out of the total assets of 3.9 billion won in 2025, a whopping 83%, or 3.3 billion won, are intangible assets, and the vast majority of this, 2.8 billion won, is recorded under the pretext of 'development costs'. Normally, development costs are recognized as assets under the premise that they can generate revenue and produce profits in the future. However, in a situation like the present where revenue has evaporated and business operations have virtually stopped, there is a high risk that the entire amount of these development costs will have to be written off as an impairment loss (expense) during the financial audit. If all 2.8 billion won of development costs are treated as impaired, the company's assets will instantly shrink to the 1.1 billion won level, and the scale of capital impairment will uncontrollably worsen to the negative 4.7 billion won level.

Even If Rehabilitation Is Filed, the Possibility of Approval Might Be Low... A Very Big Change Is Needed

Even if Wright Brothers applies for corporate rehabilitation (receivership) procedures, the possibility of receiving approval from the court appears low. To enter the rehabilitation process, the value of the money to be earned in the future if the company is kept alive (going concern value) must be greater than the value when closing its doors immediately and selling off its assets (liquidation value). However, with the current operating profit margin reaching negative 645% and revenue having evaporated by 90%, its ability to generate business to persuade creditors that "if you give us a chance for rehabilitation, we can make money and pay off our debts" is currently evaluated as low.

Wright Brothers has been highly anticipated by the industry, government, and local municipalities by introducing the concept of trust called 'certified used trading' to the secondhand bicycle market and commercializing a 'carbon calculator' for the first time in the global industry. In particular, in 2022, it partnered with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to sell 'upcycled bicycles', which were collected and repaired abandoned bicycles in the city, online, taking the lead in resource recycling and job creation for local self-reliance centers.

However, despite such meaningful steps, the barrier of reality seems too harsh to overcome the severe financial crisis it is currently facing. The reality of an innovative company that tried to pioneer a new path by fiercely contemplating not only immediate profits but also social values and the environment, ultimately failing to overcome the shackles of heavy debt and fading from the market, leaves a bitter sense of regret.