Giant Jumps into Indoor Market with Stages Purchase

Portland, Oregon

Giant Group has escalated its presence in the indoor cycling market by investing heavily in one of the leaders in the sector in North America, Stages Cycling Inc.

Taiwan-based Giant announced a US$20 million (A$29 million) investment in Stages, including buying 32.5% of the company’s ordinary shares.

A statement from Giant says the move was an integral part of its strategy in “completing Giant’s cycling ecosystem”.

“The integration of indoor and outdoor products will offer consumers with a more comprehensive cycling experience to enable consumers to enjoy the benefits and pleasures from both outdoors to indoors and vice versa, hence improving the overall quality of the cycling experience,” the statement says.

“Through this strategic alliance, Giant Group and Stages can further utilise its brand equities and advantages within the professional cycling market and to consolidate both manufacturing and distribution resources to maximise utilisation of resources.

“This would increase both product and service values and, on another hand, create a seamless cycling ecosystem in online and offline, so to accomplish long-term operation performance goals to enable Giant Group to continue to grow.”

Stages was established in 2009 with a core business focus on indoor cycling and power meters.

In recent years, Stages has expanded to cloud services and has built a strong customer base in the indoor fitness industry, serving many key indoor fitness chains.

However, its financial performance has been impacted recently by ongoing disruptions to supply chains, a post-Covid slowdown in the home indoor fitness market and increased inflation in the US.

Giant’s statement says it believes Stages Cycling’s overall performance should be enhanced by the investment – creating a strong partnership, strengthening financial control and improving operation efficiency.

There has already been collaborations between Giant and Stages in recent years. Some of Stages Cycling’s indoor bikes have been produced by Giant for several years, while Giant has been rebranding some Stages GPS computers and selling them globally under its own name.