Posts by Phil Latz
Bike Society New Store Details Revealed
Back in September we ran this story about leading South Australian Retailer Bike Society who was looking to relocate their Blair Athol store. At the time, owner Mark Birkdale was not ready to reveal the full details of what he was planning. Now it has been confirmed via the Bike Society website that they’re not…
Sydney’s Newest Bike Store Opens
Specialist ebike retailer Sydney Electric Bikes has opened a brand new store at Engadine and relocated its Thornleigh store to a new site in Hornsby. The two news stores are virtually at the extreme northern and southern edges of the greater Sydney metropolitan region and both have close access to mountain biking trails. Sydney Electric…
Norm De Grandi Dies After 72 Years in the Bike Industry
One of Australia’s longest serving bicycle industry members passed away on 9th November 2019. He was 94 years old. Norm De Grandi left behind seven children, six of whom work in the iconic business that still carries his name, De Grandi Cycle & Sport in the Victorian city of Geelong. The business was started in…
New Service Lets You Recycle Your Tyres and Tubes
Most bike shop owners agree with the concept of recycling tyres and tubes, but unfortunately it has been quite difficult to do, until now. That’s because recycling tyres is an industrial scale process and the key company who does this work in Australia, Tyrecycle, will only accept large deliveries of used bicycle tyres and tubes.…
Inside An Australian Decathlon Store’s Bicycle Department
Decathlon is a massive French owned global retailer of sporting goods. They have over 1,500 stores across 55 countries and global sales were $17.7 billion dollars in 2017. Since Decathlon opened their first Australian store in Sydney two years ago, they’ve since opened another four, with another planned for 2020 along the way to their…
Current Tariff Legislation is Hurting our Industry
Several major product categories that are sold within the Australian bicycle industry are subject to import tariffs. These are federally imposed taxes paid for by the importer. But because importers need to make a sustainable profit, they must pass these higher prices on to the retailers and that ultimately makes these goods more expensive for…
Cell Bike Brand Re-emerges in Australia
Cell Bikes are remembered in Australia as arguably the first major online retail company and discount bike brand. Cell Bikes declined as brand and business, before closing, then being acquired by Bicycles Online, the Sydney based importer and online retailer of bicycle brands including Polygon and Marin. Now the Cell Bikes brand has re-emerged in…
TEBCO Gives Dealers Full Technical Backup
– Sponsored Content – The Electric Bicycle Co (TEBCO) celebrating it’s 20th anniversary, meaning it’s the first ebike specialist company in Australia. Ask founder Tony Morgan for the secret to two decades of success and he has no hesitation in answering, “Our in house workshop capability is absolutely paramount,” he said. “We get people calling…
Two Australian Designed Products with World Class Features
– Sponsored Content – Australian bicycle industry veteran Trent Fitzgibbins is passionate about designing state of the art products at great value prices that help dealers to sell through, 52 weeks of the year. Trent has designed products for many brands and companies over the years, but this article will focus upon two of the…
How’s Business? December 2019
Welcome to our popular monthly How’s Business feature in which we ask a selection of bicycle shop owners and managers across Australia and New Zealand, ‘How’s business?’. Being our December newsletter, for this month’s follow up question we asked, ‘How is Christmas shaping up and do you do laybys for Christmas? Western Australia John Carney…