How’s Business? – April 2024

Bicycle store shopfront

Welcome to How’s Business brought to you by our new sponsor, Dirt Works, where right now if you buy an eeSILK stem you can get a free eeSILK seatpost (conditions apply). In summary, this month’s respondents painted an overall picture of a tough market for bike sales, but repairs still going fairly well, as many…

Taipei Cycle’s Smiling Face Hides a Tough Market

Acrobatic performers on stage

Taipei, Taiwan Sometimes people have to put on a brave face. If you walked through the bright halls of this year’s Taipei Cycle and didn’t stop to speak to anyone, you’d probably think that the Taiwanese and global bike industries were booming. But in reality, the opposite is true. I heard multiple stories about factories…

Spotto! Aussies at Taipei Cycle

Exterior view of a building in Taipei

Taipei, Taiwan I will admit to living six decades before learning of the game, ‘Spotto!’ But my four year old grandson is helping me make up for lost time by taking huge pleasure in spotting yellow cars and motorbikes before I do and enthusiastically telling me how much he’s winning by. I decided to take…

Pedal Group Receives B-Corp Certification

Father and daughter riding on bicycle track

Brisbane, Queensland Australian-founded Pedal Group Pty Ltd announced on Monday 11th March that it had achieved B Corp certification for its 99 Bikes retail stores and Advance Traders wholesalers in Australia and New Zealand. B-Corp certification is a voluntary code that companies can choose to apply for, that requires them to be audited in relation…

Study Finds that K-Mart Bikes Cost More Than IBD Bikes

Bike in a bicycle mechanic's workshop

Sydney, NSW Year after year, independent bicycle dealers (IBD’s) miss out on sales of entry level bikes because the customer thinks it’s cheaper to buy a bike from K-Mart or another mass merchant. All of us in the bike industry know that most mass merchant bikes are rubbish! But it’s hard to get a sale…

How’s Business? – March 2024

Street view of Bike shop

Welcome to our monthly chat with bike shop owners across Australia and New Zealand. Firstly we’d like to thank Bikecorp, Australian distributor of Knog, for sponsoring our How’s Business column for the previous six months! This booking has run its course, so if you’re a wholesaler reading this that would like to sponsor our most…

How’s Business? – February 2024

Street view of bicycle store.

Welcome to our monthly conversation with bicycle dealers. As always, we phoned dealers from across Australia and one from New Zealand and simply asked, “How’s business?” For this month’s follow up question we asked, “How were your Christmas sales compared to previous years, particularly for kids’ bikes?” Phil Lockwood from Cycle2 in Launceston, Tasmania said:…

Bike Industry Feels the Rush at TDU

Tour Down Under’s Tour Village

Adelaide, SA The Tour Down Under is heading for its 25th anniversary with some renewed momentum after a successful event this January. This article will barely mention the race itself – leaving that for consumer media, but instead will focus upon trade events and related activities that surround the race. From an industry perspective, the…

Want to Upgrade Your Store? Here’s 11 Great Ideas From Trek Sydney

Person with bike on city street

Sydney NSW I recently had the opportunity to visit and take photos of Trek’s flagship store in Sydney. (Thanks to the team and management!) For over 40 years this store was known as Clarence Street Cyclery, which was founded and run by the Cook family. Throughout this time, Clarence Street Cyclery, which sold many different…

Our First Look at Parts & Accessories Import Data

Canberra, ACT Occasionally over the years when reporting on the latest bicycle import data, I’ve made passing references to P&A data, but this is the first time that we’ve taken a deeper look at the data that’s available. In addition to collecting specific data on complete bicycles, Australian Border Force also has tariff codes for…