BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Poole-based Russell Merry has been promoted to senior vice president and general manager for Dorel’s Cycling Sports Group in North America and the UK. Dorel is headquartered in Canada; the Cycling Sports Group operates from Wilton, Connecticut, and owns brands such as GT, Schwinn and Cannondale. CSG also owns Charge and Fabric.
In his new role, industry veteran Merry will lead the Cycling Sports Group North America business. He will report to Peter Woods, president and CEO of Dorel Sports.
“I’m thrilled to have Russell take leadership responsibility of our Cycling Sports Group North America business," said Woods. “Under Russell’s leadership we will be investing in improvements in supply chain, logistics, technology infrastructure and marketing to become a more effective partner to our North American retailers and dealers.”
Merry said: "The North America IBD and key account channels are critical for Cycling Sports Group, and we have tremendous opportunity to be a great partner with our dealers and customers there."
He added: "Model year 2016 is one of our best to date, with an incredible amount of award-winning product recently launched. I’m going to focus on the critical pain points our customers have shared with us, while partnering with the brands to continue to bring great products to market.”
Merry started in the UK bicycle business in 1989 when he and his brother worked in their father’s bicycle shop in Poole. The shop was the springboard for Hot Wheels, a distribution business that was acquired by Dorel Industries in 2009, creating CSG UK. Since then, the CSG UK business has tripled in size. Merry has been MD of CSG UK for six years.
Dave Manchester, CSG North America’s senior vice president of sales and marketing has resigned from the business.
Nick Hage, who has had full line management of the Cannondale sales force in North America since April of this year, will now also pick-up the GT/Schwinn sales team. This gives him full sales leadership responsibility for IBD bike, apparel and parts and accessories for CSG North America.
