If nuke-loving, China-baiting, Putin-slavvering President Trump doesn’t blow us all up, how will his presidency impact on the bicycle industry? Market research company Gluskin Townley Group has asked that for "What the Trump Administration Means to the Future Of the American Bicycle Business", an ongoing report that now consists of three sections covering the periods from eleven days, twenty-five days and fifty-two days after the election.
Managing partner Jay Townley said:
"Our decision to make this ongoing report available at no-charge to anyone in the bicycle business is based on our commitment to define and explain as much of the future as we can to help advocates, brands, suppliers and retailers do the strategic planning for their enterprises."
Townley added:
"We believe the bicycle business is going to have to adapt and change its strategy, methodology, and tactics to have its voice heard and its message and initiatives effectively communicated and accepted at all levels of the local, state and federal governance put into power by the new politics of the recent election."
Elliot Gluskin, the other managing partner in the business, said uncertainty is never good.
“What we can say for certain after the election is the near-term future through the first quarter and into the second quarter of 2017 will be relatively uncertain – and uncertainty is never good for business. But it is just two months since the polls closed and a lot can happen between now and the inauguration later this month to eliminate uncertainty and improve overall confidence in the economy and what the future holds for the bicycle business."
He added: "We advise the American bicycle business not to plan on a significant uplift in sales during the first half of this year as the Trump Administration organizes its trade, legislative and administrative agenda with the 115th Congress and legislation is passed and signed into law that will implement the new government’s policies relative to taxes, infrastructure, trade and regulatory actions that will impact the economy, retail sales and the American bicycle business."
The Gluskin Townley Group was founded in 2004.