Belgian Cycling Factory Adds Three Country Managers to Leadership Team

The Belgian Cycling Factory (BCF) has hired three new country managers to oversee key European countries. Alexandre Carrie now manages France and Wallonia, Oliver Esselborn manages Germany and Switzerland and Peter Wilhelm is the latest addition to BCF’s Country Leadership team with extensive experience in the bike industry.

“We challenge the business models of international brands who are not 100 percent IBD focused,” said Eugene Fierkens, GM of strategy and business for BCF. “We challenge the brands who are going DTC and are acquiring stores. We at BCF care about the IBD, and we are 100 percent IBD. We never changed our behavior towards the IBD since 1997. And we will never do that. We don’t compete with the IBD. That’s a promise.”

The company said it is rolling out a new business model—Rider Retailer Centric, or RRC.

“RRC means that we always put the interests of both the rider and retailer first when we make decisions,” Fierkens noted. “To provide better services, among other things, we have subdivided Europe into nine regions. Each region will be managed by a country leader.”

Since July 1, Alexandre Carrie has managed the France and Wallonia region. Previously, he worked as a commercial director for 11 years at Lapierre. Before that, Carrie was a commercial director at Look and Fulcrum Wheels. Recently, he was the commercial and marketing director at Mach1, a supplier of wheel components.

Oliver Esselborn also started working for the company on July 1, managing the Germany and Switzerland regions. Esselborn was previously the global sales director at Trelock and, prior to that, the country group manager for Cervelo, Santa Cruz, and Focus in the DACH region. Earlier, he worked for Specialized as the sales leader for Germany and Luxembourg.

Peter Wilhelm joined BCF on August 1 with extensive experience in the bike industry. He spent five years in sales at one of Austria’s leading bike stores. He then worked as an outside account manager for Cannondale in Germany for several years. Most recently, he was the OEM sales manager at DACH for Mahle Smartbike Systems, handling bike brand accounts.

“We will keep investing in our retailers and services. More announcements will follow soon,” concluded Fierkens, suggesting “this is just the beginning.”

Image courtesy Cycling Factory/LinkedIn