Trek Buys Eight Melbourne Stores
Melbourne, Victoria
One of Victoria’s largest bike store chains, Cycles Galleria, has been purchased by Trek Bicycle Australia this month.
The purchase, including all seven Cycles Galleria stores, is the latest of two purchases by Trek in recent weeks to bolster the company’s presence in Melbourne.
In late February, Trek bought Essendon store Rapido Cycles.
In a statement, Trek says “The Rapido purchase was driven by a combination of factors, including helping a long-time customer with an exit strategy and allowing us to cement our share in Melbourne’s northern suburbs”.
Rapido had been a Trek dealer for two decades and will be rebranded as Trek Essendon.
“The purchase of Rapido aligns to our retail strategy of having committed and competent retailers in every market and helping our long-time customers with exit strategies if they want to retire or leave the industry,” the statement says.
“We are lucky to have a well-established network of independent customers that we see will continue to help us with our retail strategy growth as well.”
Trek says all Rapido staff were given the opportunity to remain with the business.
“Their skills and experience are key to delivering the Trek brand experience,” according to the statement.
Trek now owns 39 stores in Australia and has bolstered its head office team to support Trek stores and the company’s independent retailers.
Cycles Galleria includes two stores in the Melbourne CBD, additional inner-city locations in Brunswick and Docklands and suburban stores in Ringwood, Camberwell and Williamstown.
Wilcox Bikes Closing
News also emerged this week of the closure of Wilcox Bikes, in the Queensland city of Maryborough.
Wilcox Bikes has been servicing the Fraser Coast community for more than 40 years and was purchased by Fraser Coast Family Networks, a not-for-profit disability organisation supporting people with disability.
The store has announced it will hold a closing down sale from 4th – 10th April to clear stock.