Peugeot bikes to be discontinued in the UK

The Cycleurope Group has to pay Peugeot, the French car company, a royalty for use of the brand name. The licence is good until 2004 but there’s no guarantee the expensive licence will be renewed.

Fu Wong, MD of Cycleurope UK Ltd., said: “The Cycleurope Group has been reviewing its strategy within the UK marketplace. In light of the fact that the distribution of Peugeot products after 2004 has not yet been finalised, the decision has been taken to discontinue the distribution of the Peugeot range in the UK at the end of December.”

Cycleurope UK will continue to distribute Bianchi products.

Cycleurope is now the biggest of the three bike groups operating in Europe. Derby used to the biggest but with the disposal of Gazelle is now second (and its US chapter 11 filing means it will soon disappear altogether, to be replaced by the Cycle Bid Co. or another operation). Accell is third biggest bike group.

The Peugeot discontinuation will mean there will be redundancies at Cycleurope’s UK office although there’s no word yet on how many.

Fu Wong has been based in the UK for the past three and a half years. He will stay with the Cycleurope AB group but will move to the Corporate section and will be based outside of the UK.

There are about 600 Peugeot dealers in the UK.

The Cycleurope Group is in a process of integrating group buying, distribution and other functions with the main focus – at the top end at least – on Bianchi