At Scotia Capital’s annual Back-to-School Conference, held in Toronto this year, Dorel Industries pointed out several growth strategies they will be implementing in the coming year particularly around their bike business. Martin Schwartz, Dorel Industries’ president & CEO, believes that cycling will be a growth industry across all demographics. He said that Dorel’s goal for 2010 is to get even more people on bikes by making the bicycle shopping experience better.
Schwartz pointed to several participation trends that point towards growt in the cycling industry. He said that the bicycle fitness industry as a whole has been benefiting from recent attitudes towards the environment and personal health. Cities everywhere are devoting millions to building their bike infrastructures.
This summer, New York City announced plans to complete 200 bike lane miles in all five boroughs in just three years, nearly doubling the citywide on-street bike network. The numbers of commuters using bicycles in New York has increased 35% between '07 and last year, with 185,000 people cycling every day. In London, England the city has invested £110 million on its cycling infrastructure.
Some 545,000 daily bicycle journeys are made in London, a 9% increase over last year. Since 2000, London has seen a 107% increase in cyclists.
For Dorel specifically, Schwartz said that early reaction to Cannondale’s independent bike dealer product line has been “outstanding” and pre-delivery order levels are up significantly from last year at this time. Schwartz believes that Dorel will increase sales next year to the IBD channel regardless of the economic situation.
Sugoi is becoming Dorel’s center for active lifestyle and urban apparel as well as bike footwear. Dorel is merging the Cannondale and Sugoi apparel businesses into one entity which will also produce apparel lines for some of Dorel’s brands that do business through the Mass and Sporting Goods channels. Dorel has also been fairly active with acquisitions despite the economy, maximizing opportunities with selective smaller tuck-in acquisitions. Since creating recreation/leisure in 2004 with the purchase of Pacific, Dorel management has steadily been building the business. Management did not intimate whether or not they see additional opportunities for acquisitions in the future.
