We’ve just seen reports on the bike industry trade news sites (like BRAIN and BikeBiz) that Vista Outdoors, the owners of Camelbak, has just bought Bell, Giro and Blackburn for US$400 million.
Easton also used be part of that group, but it was sold off in 2014, and bought by RaceFace’s owner. Both companies were then subsequently bought by Fox Racing. There seems to be a lot of company trading going on at the moment – especially with Wiggle and Chain Reaction Cycles’ proposed merger. Are we going to see a day soon where there are only a few giant companies (no pun intended) that rule the cycling world? Or will this leave room for the smaller, nimbler companies to grow through the cracks in the corporate concrete? Our recent column by Charlie Bikemonger gives the bike industry five years – or rather it gives the consumers five years – to make enough of a difference in their buying habits before we all become part of the cycling mega corporation machine. Not only is retail changing, but the companies that supply the retailers are changing too.
We assume this won’t change distribution in the UK, but we’re investigating.
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