Dealer “Revolt” Forces Interbike to Re-think Move

On Tuesday, Nielsen announced it would keep the show and its contemporaneous Health+Fitness Business Expo at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas in 2011 and 2012. The 2011 show will take place from Sept. 14-16, while the affiliated Outdoor Demo will continue to be held at Bootleg Canyon on the two preceding days.

“We are reversing our earlier decision to move the 2011 show to Anaheim in August,” said Andy Tomkins, Interbike show director. “We are hearing loud and clear that, at this time, the industry prefers September dates and the convenience of Las Vegas.”

Nielsen announced Sept. 19 that it would move Interbike to Anaheim in 2011 and move the show up seven weeks to Aug. 8-9. More than 60% of Interbike exhibitors reportedly signed off on the new date as well as Bikes Belong, the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association and the National Bicycle Dealers Association, which endorses the show on behalf of its members.

The NBDA agreed in part because some smaller cycling brands had been asking to move the date up so they could better compete with the industry’s top three bike brands for dealers’ open to buy money, said Fred Clements, executive director for NBDA. But fervent opposition from dealers in the days after the announcement caused Nielsen to backpedal. Some brands also complained there was no way they could have product ready to show that early.

“Bike brands are only one type of company that exhibits at Interbike,” noted Clements. “Every category has its own seasonality and sell and buy cycle. They tried to appease the smaller bike brands to help them compete with the bigger guys, but for a lot of exhibitors, like the helmet and apparel companies, moving the show earlier did not work.”

The brouhaha comes as Trek, Specialized and Giant have cut back or eliminated their presence at Interbike in favor of flying dealers to their own shows at mountain resorts or their factories in early August. While all three participated in the Outdoor Demo this year, Trek and Giant did not exhibit on the show floor.

This meant many of those brands’ dealers would have been forced to pick between fly-in shows and Interbike during in the midst of their biggest sales month, said Clements.

Nielsen was widely praised by dealers and exhibitors for the reversal.
“In end everyone is happy because nobody liked August,” said Dale Brown, owner of Cycles de Oro in Greensboro, NC and an NBDA director who usually attends a Giant fly-in show in August.

However, the compromise moves the company no closer to addressing growing competition to Interbike.

There is a growing perception among component vendors that Eurobike, which takes place in Friedrichschafen, Germany every August, is gaining ground as the best place to land OEM business. Lifeboat Events, meanwhile, has been building up Dealer Camp, a mixed trade and consumer show that takes place in Park City, Utah in late July.