A Brief History of Growth of Canyon Bicycles, One of Europe's Largest Bicycle Manufacturers
One of the world’s best-selling bicycle brands, Canyon Bicycles, was founded as early as 1984, and its footprint has covered more than 100 countries in the world. However, on August 15 this year, the company officially entered the US market.
From dealer to manufacturer
In the mid-1980s, the founder of Canyon, Roman Arnold, was an amateur bicycle racer in the western city of Koblenz. When he was 18, his father died of his illness. Under the encouragement of his brother Franc, the two men began to resell Italian bike accessories for a living.
In 1985, Arnold had a decent team, and his bike shop became a distributor of well-known brands, including American specialty companies SpecialTrek and Cannondale (Arnold has long been Germany's largest Trek distributor). However, Arnold still wanted to own his own bicycle brand. At first, he got orders from small catalogs of mail order catalogs. Later, he entered the Internet and became one of the earliest online brands selling bicycles, although at the time it looked like a very big risk. The bet, but Arnold has always believed that direct sales will be the future trend.
Canyon first achieved rapid growth in Germany, followed by France, Italy and Spain. Later, it gradually expanded to other regions. Now it can already provide direct sales services to consumers in more than 100 countries. Since 2008, Canyon's annual overseas sales have exceeded that of Germany.
According to CrossBorder, Canyon is now one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in Europe. It has 850 employees worldwide and annual sales of 180 million US dollars. In the past seven years, sales have increased by 30% year-on-year.
Enter the United States
Compared to major competitors such as Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, and Giant, Canyon can provide bicycles with the same advanced performance at a lower price. The price is 20-30% lower than that of competitors. However, some observers believe that this is an exaggeration. Now.
The main reason for the lower price of Canyon is the company's use of online direct sales, eliminating physical stores and middlemen. In contrast, Specialized bikes need to be purchased through physical stores; Trek can order online, but consumers still need to pick up goods in physical stores. While some less well-known companies also use online direct sales, but the performance of bicycles and Canyon is not a small gap.
Canyon has a deep imprint of the German brand, emphasizing technology-driven and unique industrial design, while paying great attention to detail. Frank Aldorf, Canyon's chief brand officer, came from the advertising industry and once worked for competitors Specialized and the creative departments of BMW, Mercedes, Adobe and other top brands. Recently Canyon also won the prestigious International Red Dot Design Award.
Canyon said that consumers can receive fully assembled bicycles at their doorstep. The processing time of US orders is generally controlled within one day. Consumers can choose three different modes of transportation: Standard freight is 89 US dollars, time is 3~7. Between days, depending on the destination; followed by 150 US dollars for 2 days, the fastest is 175 US dollars, up to date.
The news that Canyon entered the United States has made many bike enthusiasts very excited. Many people in the industry have expressed their concerns. People have also started discussions on BicycleRetailer and IndustryNews about this topic: How such a direct consumer model as Canyon may affect physical retailers. Several industry insiders said that although Canyon is already selling products in more than 100 countries, it is not easy to open the US market because the United States is not a country that is keen on cycling and there are not many potential buyers.
Partner
A few years ago, Canyon started looking for a partner who knew the US market and could help it take a major step. Last year they finally found an ideal candidate - San Francisco's private equity fund, TSGConsumerPartners, became an investor in Canyon.
TSG specializes in investing in consumer brands, with total assets under management of approximately $5 billion. Since its establishment in 1987, TSG has become an active investor in the fields of food, beverages, catering, beauty, personal care, home furnishings, clothing and accessories, and e-commerce.
Representative companies that TSG has and has invested in in the past include: vitaminwater, thinkThin, MuscleMilk, popchips, YardHouse, Stumptown, Pabst, PlanetFitness, REVOLVE, PAIGE, SmashboxCosmetics, Pureology, Pureology, elfcosmetics and ITCosmetics.
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