News
Major Bike Companies’ Share Prices are Hitting Highs
With the Covid-19 induced global bike boom showing no sign of abating, share prices of listed bicycle business including Giant, Accell Group, Thule Group, Fox Factory, MIPS and Dorel Industries (owner of Cannondale, Mongoose, Schwinn, GT etc) have been on the rise. Shimano quickly zoomed past the price it was trading at before the pandemic…
VicHealth To Support We Ride Australia for Cycling Campaign
Time Bike and Pedal Business Has Been Sold
Groupe Rossignol has announced the sale of the Time bike and pedal business to WhaTTfornow, a four-year-old e-bike brand. Rossignol said it would concentrate its bike market activities on its Felt and Rossignol bike brands instead of Time, which has failed to reach sales goals since its acquisition in 2016. According to the release, the…
Trek and Specialized Make Major Responses to Black Lives Matter Movement
The two biggest USA based cycling brands, Trek and Specialized and have separately made major announcements in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Trek’s owner and President John Burke made this blog post on 2nd June entitled ‘When Justice is Not Enough’. He followed this with a six point announcement of what Trek would…
How’s Business – June 2020: Special Expanded Edition!
It was already obvious from last month’s How’s Business responses that the Covid-19 virus has caused an unprecedented boom in demand for workshop services and certain categories of bicycles and P&A. This month I wanted to share more detailed information about which categories of bikes and P&A in particular are in the shortest supply, along…
Bicycle Wholesalers Share Their Thoughts on Current Situation
In addition to surveying 25 retailers for this month’s newsletter, we sent emails to CEO’s of 12 of the largest bicycle wholesalers in Australia. We focused upon companies who mainly import complete bicycles, as opposed to P&A. Next month we’ll contact some P&A specialist wholesalers for their opinions. Thanks very much to all those who…
Mavic Placed Into Receivership
On 2nd May 2020, French manufacturer Mavic was placed into receivership. Last year Mavic was sold by its former parent company Amer Sports to a Californian based private equity firm, Regent LP. There are a range of further complications around the ownership structure. Mavic was founded in Lyon, France in the late 1800’s by Charles…
2020 Yearbook Coming Soon! Last Chance to Update Your Listing
We aim to be publishing The Latz Report Yearbook 2020 by the end of next month. If you’re a wholesaler or any other bike business that sells products or services to retailers, then today (Friday 29th May) is your last chance to update your free listing. Due to economic and logistical impacts of the coronavirus,…
Australian Bicycle Imports Down for March 2020
Bicycle imports into Australia were down for the month March with the total of 38,942 being the lowest March figure for any of the past 10 years. It’s reasonable to assume that at least part of the reason for the low figure was disruption of factories, particularly in China, due to Covid-19. Although the March…
Do You Take Personal Responsibility for Your Business?
The world of business can be brutal. There’s no safety net. It’s survival of the fittest. If you have a tendency to sugar coat the facts or worse still, avoid them entirely, then there’s a strong chance that they will come back to bite you. You need to take personal responsibility for your actions and…