Read CyclingIndustry.News’ first 2023 issue online now

Readers of CyclingIndustry.News’ digital edition can now pick up our first issue of 2023 online right here.

In this issue you’ll find:

• Our opening feature, always carrying the input of bike retailers, exploring the subject of overstock in the supply chain and how and when consumer demand will be revitalised, helping alleviate the headache that is currently straining the market’s businesses.
• Next up, our regular snippet of Market Data from CI.N’s annual report explores what factors most draw retailers to working with a supplier, as well as some of the trends that consumers are driving in store.
• Now under the stewardship of United Sports Brands, Pearl Izumi is opening a new chapter and that journey includes a renewed focus on bike retail partnerships. Rob Sprengers explains more in an interview on page 12.
• How important is Bulgaria to the manufacture of bicycle goods and accessories? Werner Müller-Schell visits some of the nation’s leading manufacturers to view the scale of investments and crunch the numbers.
• It’s broadly agreed that Covid’s impact on the cycle trade was unprecedented. So, what changed forever? Duncan Moore explores the role of on the road reps since site visit rates were trimmed, among other angles to the story.
• How difficult is it to get protected on street cycle parking laid down? Laura Laker explores the demand and the hurdles to supply with Cyclehoop.
• The subject of sustainability is ever-pressing as bikes evolve to build in batteries. How safe and sensible is it to repair cells and why might the bike industry currently be against the idea? CONEBI’s Manuel Marsilio discusses the policy stance on page 32.
• New Motion Labs is pioneering a new drivetrain with big claims on longevity, something that’s all the more important to fleet operators. Find out more about this innovative brand’s Enduo system on page 38.
• We’ve two profiles with two different takes on modern bike retail in the issue. First up is the retail park based AJ Cycles and following later in the magazine is workshop focussed Butternut Bikes.
• There’s plenty more too, with columns from retail merchandising expert Gosia Adamska, another edition of Bike Fitter’s Corner with Garry Kirk and an in depth interview with Pinarello UK CEO Richard Hemington rounding out the issue.

Editor’s comment

Long-term readers of this title will know that wherever the opening column has to explore some tough to digest news, often it’ll come with some counterweighting. So, with that formula in mind, let’s have a look at the pros and cons of the trade returning sharply to a place last seen pre-Covid, where full warehouses ended badly for just a few businesses who were overly bullish on the stock turn of bikes.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and everybody now would argue how predictable the a sudden spike in interest during 2020 and subsequent drop off was. Euphoria drives everyone to pile in and make hay while the sun shines, could it be that collectively we got a bit carried away? Again, hindsight might have seen us consider that the ‘black swan’ conditions of being among the only retailers permitted to remain open during the lockdowns were simply too good to be true; how could such perfect trading conditions last forever?

The thing about hindsight? It’s useless, other than to teach us to be more considered in future. There will be those in the trade who have numerous ridden storms and highs before, but it’s probably fair to say the ‘bike boom’, now better known to be a ‘bike spike’, was quite unique. “The worst I’ve ever seen it,” was the description one MD gave me when describing the “huge excesses of stock at brand/distro/retail” combined with “massive discounting, combined with a drop in demand.”

Despite this, they said “we’ll survive, but it’s going to be a journey.” And the general consensus is that if you do survive it, then the once more consolidated pie will be more appropriately sized and able to eat well. From 22 million bikes sold in the EU in 2020 there is hope to reach 30 million by the end of the decade, implying a more than 36% increase in volume, plenty of which will be high sales value eBike trade. These already makes up 1 in 2 sales in Holland.

These forecasts come from some top-level analysis from European trade umbrellas, they are not the often wishy washy reports that are banded about by out of industry analysts keen to pump excitement with investors. They explain why we are seeing such significant investments in production clout from Bosch, Yamaha, PON, Bianchi, Riese and Müller, Cube and many others.

Big fish getting much bigger is another conversation altogether, for another time, but for the time being those that can again adapt to choppy conditions and their customer’s needs may be able to see distant light at the end of the tunnel we now find ourselves in. My bet is that when we eventually reach the end the light will be brighter than ever as cycling finally claims its rightful place and size in the transport ecosystem.

There’s a lot of people out there with good and increasingly varied reason to become our customers. The next question? How best to get their attention.