BRG Sports has extended its agreement with its Australasian distributor to continue distributing its Giro and Blackburn brands in Australia and New Zealand and announced plans to move its Bell Cycle helmet business to another distributor efective July 1.


The agreement is with Sheppard Industries, which helped establish market-leading positions for the Giro brand in Australia in the last decade, said BRG Sports Senior Vice President- Global Sales, Action Sports Bernie Doering.

“Sheppard Industries has a proven track record when it comes to servicing the needs of the Australian bicycle market, so we are extremely pleased to announce that Sheppard’s will be distributing Giro and Blackburn for another 5 years,” Doering said.  “The team at Sheppard’s has a proven ability to market and distribute our premium brand offering which includes Helmets, footwear, gloves, lights, computers, accessories as well as our Giro New Road apparel range.  We’re looking forward to building on the growth and success we’ve achieved together with Giro and Blackburn in the Australian market over the last decade.”


Sheppard Industries Managing Director Bob Boniface said the exclusive agreement represented a great opportunity for Sheppard to build on its position as Australasia’s leading cycling wholesaler.


“We’re very pleased to have recently signed a new 5-year extension with BRG Sports to continue distributing Giro and Blackburn in Australia and to be continuing our long term partnership with the BRG Sports team, whose support and confidence is greatly appreciated,” Boniface said.  “We have experienced strong growth over the years with Giro in particular, to a market-leading position and recognise the opportunity that this represents with the raft of new products that Giro and Blackburn have introduced in recent years.”


Sheppard Industries remains the largest wholesaler of bikes, parts and accessories in the Australia and New Zealand in terms of sales and revenue.


BRG also announced it is reassigning distribution of Bell Cycle helmets in the region to Bell Motorsports Helmets distributor Monza Imports effective July 1 as part of its new global brand strategy that seeks to align positioning of the Bell brand globally. 



“Monza Imports has been a tremendous partner with BRG Sports in helping to rebuild the Bell Power Sports over the last two years,” said Doering. “We are confident that this strategic move will continue to strengthen the brand even further. We would like to thank Sheppard Industries for their past partnership as well as for the future as they continue to distribute the Giro and Blackburn brands.”
 

Doering thanked Sheppard for its work establishing the Bell Cycle helmet brand over the last decade, which included developing a range of helmets to meet Australian standards and, in more recent times, investing in marketing, event sponsorship and dealer programs to grow Bell to a leadership position in the IBD helmet market.

At Monza Imports, General Manager – Bicycle Division Stephen Robinson, said he sees Bell helmets attaining the same dominant position in cycling as as they have in the motorcycle market.