Posts by Phil Latz
Meet Cycling’s Newest ‘Major’
~ Sponsored Content ~ Pon Holdings only started in the bicycle industry eight years ago, but is already one of the global bike industry’s major players. Pon.Bike Australia has had an equally meteoric rise having just moved into its fourth consecutively larger premises in eight years. We recently caught up with Pon.Bike Australia’s founding CEO,…
Welcome to the brand new Latz Report!
What Will The Latz Report Do For You?
Welcome to the brand new Latz Report! The Latz Report will serve Australia’s bicycle industry by providing timely, accurate and relevant information. My goal is to help Australia’s bicycle industry become more profitable. If I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting you previously, here’s a brief introduction. I’ve had 47 years involvement in cycling so…
New Trails = More Sales
You can see a pattern emerging all over Australia and New Zealand. When enticing new cycling infrastructure is built, such as a new mountain bike trail network or a rail trail, then businesses that embrace the new opportunities grow and prosper. Australia is about to see unprecedented government investment in new recreational trails. We’ll share…
Eurobike Numbers Up for 2019
After a failed experiment last year with a move to July and no public day, Eurobike returned to its traditional early September date and three trade days, one public day format. The change back appears to have worked. According to a press release, Eurobike trade attendance was up 6.6% this year with 39,834 trade visitors…
Australia’s Three Major Cycle Sport Bodies Working Towards Merger
Cycling Australia, Mountain Bike Australia and BMX Australia are well down the path of a plan to merge into a single structure called One Cycling. If the merger goes ahead, members will be able to participate in all disciplines under a single licence. The move will not only merge the three sporting bodies but also…
USA Based Private Equity Firm on Bike Brand Buying Spree
Iconic French brand Mavic, was sold in July 2019, completing a deal that was first announced on 15th March. Previous owner Amer Sports, a European based sporting conglomerate, sold Mavic to Regent, a USA based private equity firm. Amer also purchased ENVE wheels in 2016 for US$50 million (A$74 million), but ENVE was not part…
Sachs Brand Relaunches at Eurobike
Sachs is a century old bicycle component brand from Germany that also had a presence in Australia for many years, despite having a small market share here. In November 1997 American component company SRAM bought Sachs and took over its German factory as the centre for its internal geared hub manufacture. But due to declining…
Harley Davidson Enters the Bicycle Market
Four years after introducing their LiveWire electric motorcycle program, on 23rd August 2019 Harley Davidson presented three ebike prototypes. They released a photograph, but no technical information. The urban style pedalec bikes appear to have only one brake lever to operate both front and rear brakes.
Giant & Shimano Trading Strongly
Two of the cycling world’s best known manufacturers have released their latest financial reports showing strong sales and profits over recent months. On 19th March Giant announced that its sales for 2018 grew 9.1% over 2017 to NT60.24 billion (A$2.83 billion) with net profit up 46.3% to A$203 million. Giant said that strong ebike demand…