Posts by Phil Latz
How’s Business – November 2023
Welcome to How’s Business, brought to you by Knog – Australian designed and lighting up the world. I’ve recently been hearing about multiple stores, spread across three different States and Territories, where senior bicycle mechanics or workshop managers are being offered or already being paid salaries in the vicinity of $90,000. This is higher than…
Cyberbikes Chooses a Different Path
Leichhardt, NSW Cyberbikes has just opened a relatively small shop on one of Sydney’s busiest stretches of road. Parramatta Road at Leichhardt is about six kilometres west of the CBD. This is a relatively densely populated area with century-old terrace houses and a wide range of apartment buildings. Unlike most small bicycle stores, founder Felipe…
How’s Business – October 2023
Welcome to How’s Business, brought to you by Knog – Australian designed and lighting up the world. Even though it’s one of the first things dealers talk to me about, it has been six months since we last specifically asked our How’s Business participants about the ‘d’ word … discounting. So for this month’s follow-up…
Inside Australia’s Largest New Bike Shop
Lilydale, Victoria The Latz Report recently wrote about Yarra Valley Cycles purchasing a 1,500 square metre premises to be transformed into one of Australia’s largest bike shops. On 13th September, we had the chance to visit the almost completed store to take photos and interview co-owner Ash Swann. Lilydale is 42km east of the Melbourne…
How to Sell Nearly $1 Million in Apparel Annually
Brookvale, NSW Back in early 2021, I phoned Sticky Bottle as part of our monthly How’s Business column, in which we speak to bike shop owners and managers across Australia and NZ. As you can see in that column, owner Justin Roscoe made the rare revelation that they sold a lot of cycling apparel through…
Enduro Bearings Are a Hidden But Vital Key to Bicycle Performance
~ Sponsored Content ~ As every bike shop mechanic knows, optimally functioning bearings are vital to the performance of any bicycle. Australian mechanics will now be able to access the full product range of global market leader Enduro Bearings through its new exclusive Australian distributor, Lusty Industries. We recently spoke with Enduro Bearings co-founder Matt…
It’s Time for the Tour Down Under to Say No to Santos
Adelaide, SA If you look back through the Opinion section of The Latz Report, you’ll see I use my prerogative as publisher to voice an opinion very sparingly. There are only a couple of dozen opinion pieces since we started in 2019, most of which are non-controversial and two of which were written by guests.…
How’s Business – September 2023
How’s Business – August 2023
Welcome to How’s Business, brought to you by Knog – Australian designed and lighting up the world. With stock levels and discounting still a frequent topic of conversation in the bike trade, for this month’s follow up question we asked, “How does your current number of bicycles in stock compare with where you’d like it…
Australian Bicycle Imports Remain at Record Lows
Canberra, ACT Every Australian bicycle retailer and wholesaler knows from first-hand experience that since the end of Covid lockdowns, our market has been overstocked, resulting in widespread discounting which causes unwanted erosion of margins and profits. While this situation is not universal across all bicycle categories, particularly in the high end, in the volume market…