Shimano will open its own bike office in Italy from the 1st of July 2014 in the Milano area.
The newly established company will have around 25 employees and will handle Shimano’s sales, marketing and service activities in Italy for bikes.
The move marks the end of a three decade-old distribution arrangement with MIC (although MIC will continue to distribute Shimano’s fishing tackle gear in the territory).
President of Shimano Europe Holding, Marc van Rooij said: ”I would like to thank M.I.C. and Amedeo Colombo and his family for their collaboration for more than 30 years. We have been working together for a very long time to represent Shimano in Italy. However, some differences in vision and strategy for future developments brought us to take the decision to go separate ways."
Shimano Italy will work in much the same way as the increasing number of Shimano sales offices around Europe, including Shimano Benelux, Shimano Scandic, Shimano Poland, Shimano France and Shimano Turkey.