European Bike Industry Survey is Surprisingly Upbeat

Brussels, Belgium

Each year since 2020 Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) has published an annual Business Impact Survey which takes a holistic look at the state of the industry, with respondents representing various segments of the cycling industry, including bikeshare services, bike and parts manufacturers, retailers, and cycling ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) providers.

The respondents were all CIE members. CIE membership includes most, but not all, of the major European and global bicycle companies. You can see a list of their 98 members here.

It’s fair to question the statistical validity of the survey, given that it only surveys CIE members, of whom less than 50% respond. But in the absence of any other data in which major bike businesses share this information, I think that it’s still worth looking at – especially in terms of trends from one year to the next, as the same group is surveyed each year.

The chart below summarises the results. Those companies in green said they had lower revenues in that year compared to the previous year. Those in blue said they had the same revenues and those in yellow said they had increased revenues.

You can clearly see the end of the covid bike boom in the trending 2022 and 2023 data, but almost as many respondents reported increased as decreased and overall revenues were up in 2023 compared to 2022. Similarly, in terms of employment, at least half of the respondents indicated that they either maintained their workforce size or were actively hiring.

Improved Supply Chain Reliability

Perhaps more expected than the relatively positive revenue news, is the chart below that shows that supply chains have rapidly returned to lower levels of disruption.

Overall the survey respondents appeared to have a positive outlook for the future with respectively 65% maintaining or increasing overall spending and 62% maintaining or increasing marketing budgets.

The survey was conducted in Jan-Feb 2024 by Sporting Insights, a consultant to CIE. You can see the original CIE report here.