The latest retail analysis by consultant Jay Townley for the National Bicycle Dealers' Association of America shows that poor weather in Q1 allied to a soft economy has accelerated the number of IBD store closures. Over 200 US IBDs have shut-up shop in the first 120 days of 2003, said Townley, and "hunkering down to wait for things to get better won't work." He has a rescue plan, though....

America is losing 50 IBDs a month

"We need to take action now to shift and redirect available industry funds and resources into programs to advertise and promote specialty bicycle dealers as the preferred retailers of quality bicycle products, servce and added value."

Other highlights in Townley’s report for April includes the fact that "current model year bikes dominate year-to-date sales and this could be the cleanest retail inventory in a decade."

And Townley also worries about average retail price point erosion at US IBDs.

The report – including many useful bike category sales figures – can be downloaded in PDF format here:

http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/…/RDC-Analysisv02-April-03.pdf

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