Spain’s bicycle industry grows production & employment despite sales fall

Spain’s bicycle industry couldn’t maintain its run of record breaking sales years, with 2022 seeing turnover fall a modest 6%. In news that will surprise few industry watchers, eBike (and urban bike) growth bucked the decline.

Following two record years where more than 1.5 million bicycles were sold annually in Spain, 2022 couldn’t quite match that total. Spanish Bicycle Industry Association AMBE emphasised the point that despite the fall in sales, 2022 compared very positively to pre-pandemic 2019 – up 45.1% in terms of 2019’s turnover.

The stronger comparison year of 2021 saw a 13.59% drop in the number of bicycles sold.

Other positives saw employment rise in 2022 for Spain’s bicycle industry, up 5.32% to 24,456 people directly. In fact, employment and business creation reached record figures. In 2022, 3,111 bicycle sales, repair and rental outlets were operating in Spain (2.74% more than the previous year) and 401 companies (+10.77%).

Spain’s bicycle production numbers rose too, up 2.8% in value in 2022 to €255.8 million (more than double 2019’s tally), a record for the nation. Bicycle exports increased a whopping 76.5% compared to 2022, tripling 2019 numbers.

In Spain, 189 national manufacturers of bicycles, parts and accessories are registered (5% more than the previous year).

Javier López, President of AMBE said: “The year 2022 has not been easy for the bicycle industry, but the increase in employment, the creation of companies and the positive performance of electric and urban bicycle sales reflect what the sector can offer to the Spanish society: cleaner mobility, jobs and business opportunities.”

Bicycle prices

After two years of record sales and turnover, 2022 was a year of readjustment weighed down mainly by the drop in demand. Compared to the previous year’s figures, more than 1.35 million bicycles were sold in Spain in 2022 (13.59% less than in 2021) and the sector’s turnover fell by 6% to €2,714 million.

“Despite not having state aid for the purchase and repair of bicycles, as our neighbouring countries have, or tax incentives for cycling to work or acquiring fleets of bikes, the year 2022 has performed better than expected, although worse than neighboring countries such as France or Germany, which enjoy institutional support for more people to access a bicycle as a form of daily mobility” Jesús Freire, Secretary General of AMBE.

However, if we compare the data with 2019 (before the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine), bicycle sales recorded an increase of 7.6% and the sector’s turnover increase by 45.1%.

In sell-in sales data, part sales turnover increased by 2.51% compared to the previous year, but a decrease in sales value was recorded in several accessory categories that had performed exceptionally well in 2020 and 2021: helmets (-16.53%), textiles (-15.18%) and shoes (-6.82%).

In terms of bicycle prices, in 2022 there was an increase in the average price (PVP) of 13.93%, closely linked to the increase in the costs of raw materials, transport, but above all to a greater weight of the sale of electric bicycles (with a higher average price) within the product sales mix.

The average price of a bicycle sold in Spain exceeded 1,000 euros for the first time (1,121 euros), with the average price of electric bicycles (2,940 euros) and the increase in the average price of the highly demanded gravel bikes (+42.4%) to 1,589 euros. On the other side of the coin, the average price of urban bicycles (305 euros) fell by 0.4%.

eBikes rise again

The bicycle categories with the best sales performance in 2022 were city bikes, which increased sales by 22.5%, and electric bicycles, which reached 236,183 units sold and an increase in sales of 5.7% compared to the previous year.

For the third consecutive year, electric bicycles consolidated their position as the leading category in terms of turnover (45.66% of the share of bicycle sales) despite representing 17.4% of unit sales, followed by mountain bikes, traditionally the leading segment in terms of turnover, with a 34.5% market share in terms of units sold and a 28.45% share in terms of sales volume. The largest decreases in sales compared to the previous year were recorded in gravel bikes (-34.35%) and mountain bikes (-23%).

AMBE puts the annual market report together in partnership with Cofidis and its official data provider, Sport Panel.

You can get hold of more cycling industry data, specifically for the UK, put together here at CyclingIndustry.News. Contact Frazer for more details.