Schwalbe sees record turnover in 2021 financial year

Schwalbe achieved sales of €273 million in the 2021 financial year, a growth of around 20% for the family business compared to the previous year and a new record turnover.

“The 2021 financial year went extremely well for us,” said Frank Bohle, managing director of Ralf Bohle GmbH. “Despite the difficult environment caused by the pandemic, we have grown very strongly – which makes us proud.”

Schwalbe’s turnover has almost doubled in the past ten years; in 2011 it was at €140 million. One of the factors for the significant increase in 2021 was, in addition to the generally high demand for bicycles and bicycle parts, the e-bike boom.

“With our continuing high level of innovation and the usual Schwalbe quality, we have been setting standards in the e-bike segment for years,” said Bohle. “As a result, we have established ourselves as a benchmark for e-bike tyres among bicycle manufacturers and specialist retailers.”

In 2021, Schwalbe’s successful tube recycling programme was extended to Switzerland and is now already available in five European countries. Old tubes are collected, recycled and then used for the production of new tubes. The process saves 80% of energy compared to the production of new butyl, said Schwalbe.

Over six million tubes have already been collected since the project started in 2015, and the concept is also planned to be applied to bicycle tyres in the future. The family-owned company launched a pilot project in November 2021 in cooperation with the Technical University of Cologne and Pyrum Innovations AG.

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Bohle said: “The bicycle is the means of transport of the future. Expansion of our production capacities is in full swing. In economic terms, I am therefore very optimistic that we will be able to continue our growth course in 2022. At the same time, this year, we would like to focus even more on the topic of corporate responsibility.”