Big Bike Business

Yesterday I had to get some bike parts and again got interested by a bike on display. Nothing special, but it was well equipped and looked nice. When I asked about that particular brand ("Alex") I learned that it was the house brand of a big retailer in Germany (Karstadt). The salesperson then immediately went on telling me that it is in fact produced by Derby Cycle, which also owns a couple of German brands like Kalkhoff, Rixe (both traditional German brands) and Focus (the modern brand) and produces OEM-wise a number of others. Apparently Alex is just a rebranded Focus, albight a little cheaper. So why am I writing all this?





Well, what is fascinating is that customers all over Europe seem to like local brands, so there is an incredible variety and number of them. But there are actually quite few real manufacturers. And most of those are frequently just assemblers. The parts are anyway international by Shimano & co. So when I had a break today, I researched that
info and found this interesting German article of BrandEins, the German FastCompany-type magazine. Turns out that Derby Cycle, which started as Kalkhoff, was bought by Derby International (a British company) in 1988, shortly after Derby
had bought the traditional Raleigh Bicycle Company. Derby, as the holding company, had an interesting history which ended by a management buyout in 2001 (including
one of the Derby initiators and founders) and subsequently was renamed Raleigh Cycle. Unfortunately production in Nottingham ceased in 2002, Raleigh continues to be a holding and marketing/sales/distribution company. The full and fascinating story can be read here. Raleigh is one of the largest bike manufacturer in the world. Not so small local business after all...

Photos cc 2006 jessyjones (old bike) and cc 2005 automatt (Raleigh logo on blue tube)

Please check out their flickr sets, they are amazing.

technorati tags:Raleigh, Derby International, Derby Cycle, Kalkhoff, Focus, Rixe, Bicycles, Bikes, Raleigh Cycle, Karstadt

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