MacBike’s red bicycles have been a household name in the city for 36 years. It was Amsterdam’s first bicycle rental company. Jos Louwman filled the gap in the market in the late 1980s with fifteen folding bicycles from the former Yugoslavia, he says. About a week ago it became apparent that MacBike’s survival was hanging by a thread. Louwman: “Annoying for staff, and personally too, because it’s kind of my baby.”
“I started MacBike with my best friend who I know from Osdorp. We have known each other for sixty years now.” Louwman did not understand how a cycling city like Amsterdam did not yet have a bicycle rental company. He says that they each borrowed 12,000 guilders from their parents. “We paid that back within a year, so we were extremely successful from the start.”
There used to be lines out the door, Louwman continues. Not anymore, although there are still good days sometimes. While they used to rent out eight hundred bicycles a day at Central Station, there are now two hundred on a good day.
“The corona support hangs over our heads like the sword of Damocles”
About a week ago it turned out that MacBike did not have enough money to pay the staff. In an internal email, director Bas Oosterhout asks whether employees who do not necessarily need the salary on the 25th can let us know. The biggest problem would be repaying the corona support. “That hangs over us like the sword of Damocles.”
Easter weekend
The director previously said that one nice weekend can mean that nothing more is wrong and that Easter is always a ‘super weekend’. Now he says that Easter went ‘moderately’, mainly because a lot of rain was predicted. He also says that if he does not receive an extension from the Tax Authorities for repayment, it will be the end of the story for his company. “We don’t have it. It’s not possible.”
“Postponement of wages has happened much more often”
Louwman has been away from MacBike for a year, but is still aware of a lot of what is going on. The corona crisis and therefore the lack of tourists, but also increasing competition, have, among other things, made the situation so dire. “Competitors such as bicycle sharing, public transport bicycles and hotels that also rent out bicycles have made it very difficult.” He also says that late salary payments also happened in previous years. “Nothing is rented in the winter, but you do invest. The difference is that nothing has been invested in recent years.”
Salary April
The director says that all employees have received their March salary. “I think there is still enough for April’s salary,” says Oosterhout. Furthermore, according to him, we have to wait for a message from the Tax Authorities.
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