BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Before you know it, half the year has gone and you’ve hardly had time to process the swathe of big name acquisitions we have seen in the first half of the year.
Going into the economic downturn, wise sages said the bike trade was bound to see an upswing in the number of takeovers. They were right, but now – supposedly in the full swing of recovery – the buy outs continue apace and they are not just low profile ones either.
The UK’s biggest specialist bike shop chains – Evans Cycles (in May) and Cycle Surgery (in June) – have both being snapped up by new investors. Then there are key brands changing hands, like Santa Cruz last month, Bergamont in June and 3T in March. And new tech firms like Recon have been snapped up (by Intel) while Cycling Weekly publisher Time Inc bought UK Cycling Events, as a hint to where they might be branching out into. As another wise sage has said: “Who next?”
One thing beyond question, happily, is that brands in the bike biz are still setting investor’s hearts a-flutter. Controversies, social media storms and dubious headlines may seem damaging, but they really don’t seem to have detered hard-headed business investors from putting their money into the market, at least outside of the sport of cycling.
