Felt moves in to Rossignol HQ in Europe

Felt Bicycles has this morning mailed its partners to outline some strategic changes for the business involving premises switches and staff changes.

In the USA the business will move into a new and larger facility in Southern California, set to become its global headquarters. Located in Rancho Santa Margarita, it was selected by Felt to support a greater experience both for its staff, as well as dealers that may come to Felt.

The new expanded location will feature a visitor showroom and event hall that will be used for a combination of hosting Felt’s company and industry events, as well as a place for visitors to tour and test ride the latest Felt bicycles.

Meanwhile in Europe, Felt’s Munich offices are to close with the business shifting to a shared space with parent Rossignol. This move is to be completed by the end of 2017.

Revealed in a town hall meeting of Felt staff, the changes were presented by Felt president Bill Duehring who also outlined operational and staff changes to Felt’s U.S. office, sales teams and finance groups. As of the end of December, Felt will begin transitioning the inside sales team duties to Rossignol’s inside sales group located in Park City, Utah.

Duehring, alongside Rossignol CEO Bruno Cerclet and North America president Francois Goulet, concluded the meet by saying: “While change can feel uneasy, it’s important to Felt and to our retail partners that together we are organizing our businesses to meet the evolving needs of cyclists here in the United States and around the world. Our highest priority is to make outstanding bicycles and have the business structure to support this goal.”

One staff change to feature in the reshuffle is the appointment of Jake Duehring who, following Jim Felt’s departure from the business, will take on Felt’s Sports Marketing position. Jake has been within the Felt business for ten years in marketing, product development and international sales roles.

Adam Micklin, Felt’s Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing notes, “Jake brings great credibility to Felt’s Sports Marketing with his background in both the business of cycling as well as his success as a competitive athlete. He has a tremendous understanding of all things Felt Bicycles, but perhaps just as important, he understands the mentality of racing and the view of cycling from the athlete’s perspective. With the departure of Jim this past week, we wanted to make sure that we would have a person that genuinely understands both of these and would have the trust of our partners. Jake is also motivated to find new ways to promote our athletes and their phenomenal accomplishments. This will be a noticeable evolution in our marketing initiatives going forward.”

Felt became part of winter sports giant the Rossignol Group in February.