Kroymans Bankruptcy

There were several posts about 1 year ago by me and other posters that this depression was going to effect the rich and the uber wealthy as well as the rest of us. It is going to take another 2 years for all this to unwind and there will be some fantastic collections up for sale. In the art world death divorce and bankruptcy bring 80% of the art to market, with classic cars it is no different.

 

For those who are not aware, Frits Kroymans is the man behind this amazing company and he has been absolutely vital for the classic Ferrari scene in the Netherlands. He became the official importer for Ferrari in 1972 I think, based in Hilversum (about 30km from Amsterdam). His personal collection of Ferraris was amassed over the space of 40 years and includes 250GTO #4757. It was housed in a museum underneath the Kroymans Hilversum dealership, which clients were welcome to go and view on regular occassions. As the success of the Kroymans agency for Ferrari grew, he branched out to other brands and also to other countries, principally Germany. The problems came with the taking over of brands like Cadillac which in Europe are never likely to be a success, and are a death trap in recession times.

To the surprise of many, it seems that in recent years he brought his collection under in one of his companies under a lease agreement, which now means that the collection is likely to be auctioned off as the company has folded. A great tragedy for the Dutch Ferrari scene.

Ironically, the refurbishment of the original Hilversum agency (which was still highly profitable) is almost completed and it was to be opened this spring. But even though it is profitable, it cannot be rescued and is folding now too.



Onno

 

Sad, Crazy, and Strange Times...

 

Correct, just wait and see what the banks will do with all the cars (except of a couple Ferraris)
Auction or sell them separately.

 

Very sad What gets me is this whole econ mess could have been avoided but that is off topic.

 

On the other hand, running a company with only debt and aggressive grow strategy is riskfull. And leasing your own collection back is so to say not very common to do.....

ciao
Oscar

 

So for the second time #4757 has been repossessed? (Last time it was the FBI)

Wonder if the bad mojo will lower the sale price...

 

The yellow Daytona spyder looks like it has a plexi nose, but I think there's only one of those and it's a different colour......so is this a modded Spyder or a cut plexi coupe?

Neil

 

4757 also had the mother of all accidents at Le Mans 1963 with Carlo Maria Abate at the wheel. It was the middle of the night and Franco Gozzi told me that he slid on oil from the blown engine of Roger Penske in the 330TRI 0808.
of course a year before Abate was showing the Breadvan's back to all GTOS before it broke down and 0808 won the race.

Abate was very badly injured and it ended his career, sad as he was very highly rated by Count Volpi and Ferrari who took him aboard after Scuderia Serenissima ceased operations.

best regards,

Marc

 

Does this effectively mean that the Netherlands are without a Ferrari-importer? There have to be consequences for the dealers operations as well.. I find it somewhat hard to believe that the executors would close down and sell of all of the assets, with disregard for the profitability of components of it.

If I remember correctly, his business went south in the early eighties as well and was re-built, but the damage may be a little beyond recovery this time around.

Very sad to see, Frits is a nice guy, and I wish him well through all this.

 

No - Ferrari restructured its Western Europe dealerships a couple of years ago. At that point Kroymans lost his position as the sole importer and he became a dealer. The second dealer (and now the only one remaining) is Munsterhuis in Hengelo.

www.munsterhuissportscars.nl

It is surprising to see that profitable sections of the business are going down, but I believe it is due to the way that the empire was set up. Perhaps some of the folding companies own the profitable sections, which means that the debtors will need to close those profitable sections to recoup some of the money owed, but I do not know. The manager of the profitable Ferrari dealership sent a letter out in February that they would not be affected, but unfortunately that turned out to be a promise he couldn't keep. So it is very surprising to everyone, even in the heart of the company.


Onno

 

Leasing is not that unusual. The rich like to use other people's money, not their own...
CH

 

This is s/n 13477, a berlinetta to spider conversion.

 

It is unusual - he already owned the cars outright and brought them under a lease agreement later on. BTW - the person you were talking to has a classic Ferrari collection of his own so hardly needs to have explained what the rich do or don't do.


Onno

 

A sale/leaseback would be uncommon for a personal collection owned purely for pleasure. But for the collection of a dealer or someone in a related business, it probably offered considerable tax advantages as well as freeing up capital. This is well-established financial technology, not an ill-considered innovation of the type that has caused so much grief of late. Obviously, however, the danger is that if your ship goes down, the toys go with it.

 

People that should know say that the collection was used for securization. Kroyman's was a special company and carried a lot of owner spirit. Sad to see it go ...

 

This is a sad tale for Kroymans, but maybe we will finally see the cars out and about.

 

It did seem that Kroymans didn't use his cars very much. Only the GTO and PF cabrio came out now and then (Historic challenge for the GTO mainly).

 

....but don't forget the F1 car he broke in half @ Laguna Seca a few years ago.......

 

Yeah, that was a strange event, and I can't remember what the findings were after the occurrance: was it a built up show-monocoque or a genuine one? In any case, he was very lucky to excape that one with his legs intact!

 

Not quite intact, I believe. I think he experienced acute discomfort several hours after that spectacular Ferrari failure, and upon further examination was found to have a hairline fracture problem. He was still a lucky boy, however...

DCN

 

Doug: Is it really true that Weber named it's DCN carbs after you?

 

Doug,

That was probably the state the monocoque was in before he raced it: with hairline cracks.

 

Ed - absolutely true. I actually receive $5 for every Weber DCN carb sold and $3 for every DCN service. I am also British Hang-Gliding Champion for 1989-2001 inclusive, hold a Guinness Book of World Records title as a Champion barbed-wire jumper - until my unfortunate accident - and am the oldest person ever to lay down an album as a boy soprano.

Any more questions?

DCN