Posts by Phil Latz
How’s Business? May 2021
Welcome to our monthly chat with bicycle shop owners and managers across Australia and New Zealand. As always, we start by simply asking, ‘How’s business?’ This months follow up question was, ‘How do you think the coming winter season is going to compare to last year’s?’ Troy Reilly of Sprung in the centre of Launceston, Tasmania said: Mate, business…
Major New Developments Including Ownership Changes at MTB Direct
On 8th April 2021, MTB Direct, Australia’s leading online retailer of mountain bike parts and accessories, announced that they have partnered with SPS Commerce and its Australia-based team of experts to advance their supplier collaboration and drive new efficiencies. Since being founded in 2012 MTB direct has experienced double-digit annual growth and exceeded 350,000 e-commerce orders. “Mountain biking is an increasingly…
Bike Counter Data Shows Clear Covid Spike
We’ve all seen increased cycling activity during Covid lockdowns and heard about the surge in demand for bicycles and related equipment. But it’s interesting to see some hard data that precisely measures cycling activity, even if it’s only a snapshot from six locations around Australia. The two charts accompanying this story relate to the same six bike…
Giant Profit!
The global Covid-induced bike boom has seen Giant Group’s net profit grow by almost half in 2020. Net profit for 2020 was up 46.7% over 2019. It reached NT$4.95 billion (A$228 million). This was based upon total sales for 2020 of NT$70 billion (A$3.22 billion) meaning that the net profit percentage rate was still a quite modest 7.1%. Giant said all its…
Australian Bicycle Imports Smash All-Time Records
We’ve now received the bicycle import data for January and February 2021 and the record-breaking run of monthly imports started in 2020 has continued. In January a total of 146,706 bicycles were imported consisting of 40,492 kids bikes and 106,214 adult bikes. That total made it the all-time record in January by over 50% compared to the previous record high of 97,440 units…
How Bicycle Frames Could Become Batteries
One of the downsides of electric bicycles is that they’re heavier than conventional bikes. But imagine if the bicycle frame itself could also be the battery. We’re not just talking about existing technology where batteries are now hidden inside the frame, sometimes with an exposed surface that blends in with the frame tube’s profile, but new technology where the…
Volvo Partners with The Classics Gran Fondo Series
These days motor vehicle companies are becoming increasingly keen to associated with cycling. An example of this was Volvo’s collaboration in a major research and safety campaign with Swedish helmet company POC, and more recently when Volvo launched the world’s first cyclist and pedestrian detection and collision avoidance system. Volvo Car Australia recently formalized a two-year partnership with Bicycling Australia,…
Shimano Launches Global Anti-counterfeiting Program
Shimano is launching a program to curb the sale of counterfeit products, which includes promises to work with criminal investigations and file civil suits against manufacturers and distributors of counterfeit Shimano gear. The company also said it is creating packaging technology that is difficult to counterfeit and adding QR code labels to packaging. A smartphone…
Two Bike Shop Related Software Businesses Recently Acquired
Point of sale company Vend has recently been acquired by a competitor in this marketplace, Lightspeed. We recently posted a company feature about Vend which you can read here. The Auckland-based independent company has an office in Melbourne and a significant user base of bike shops in both Australia and New Zealand. Lightspeed is also well…
UK and French Sales Both Up Strongly
Recently further evidence was released showing the global reach of the pandemic induced bike boom. The UK cycling market was valued at £2.31 billion (A$4.2 billion) in 2020, an increase of 45% vs 2019. Within this, total ebike sales grew by 67% in volume to 160,000 units and by 96% in value to £280 million (A$509 million). The Bicycle Association is predicting only a 5% reduction in sales for 2021…