Dorel Sports appointed Russell Merry to the role of SVP & General Manager North America and the U.K., Cycling Sports Group, which sells Cannondale and other premium bike brands into the independent bicycle dealer channel.
In this new role, Russell will have leadership of the Cycling Sports Group North America business. He will report to Peter Woods, President & CEO Dorel Sports. Russell has more than 25 years of experience in the bike industry and six with Dorel Sports as Managing Director of Cycling Sports Group UK.
“I’m thrilled to have Russell take leadership responsibility of our Cycling Sports Group North America business. Russell is an industry veteran and proven leader who is bringing his expertise as a General Manager to one of our most critical markets,” said Woods. “Under Russell’s leadership, we will be investing in improvements in supply chain, logistics, technology infrastructure and marketing to become a more effective partner to our North American retailers and dealers.”
Merry said sees tremendous opportunity to be a great partner with dealers and customers in the North America IBD and Key Account channels at Cycling Sports Group.
“Model Year 2016 is one of our best to date, with an incredible amount of award-winning product recently launched,” Merry said. “I’m going to focus on the critical pain points our customers have shared with us, while partnering with the brands to continue to bring great products to market.”
Russell has deep and successful experience in the industry and with Dorel Sports that makes him ideal for this role. He started in the bicycle business in 1989 when he and his brother worked in their father's bicycle shop in Poole, UK. The shop was the springboard for a distribution business that was acquired by Dorel Industries in 2009, creating CSG UK. Since then, the CSG UK business has tripled in size.
In addition to Russell’s new role, Nick Hage, who has had full line management of the Cannondale sales force in North America since April of this year, will now also pick-up the GT/Schwinn sales team. This gives him full sales leadership responsibility for IBD bike, apparel and parts and accessories for CSG North America.
Dave Manchester, SVP Sales & Marketing, North America has resigned from the business to pursue other opportunities.
Dorel Sports is a segment of Dorel Industries Inc. with one of the most comprehensive ranges of brands in the bicycling industry around the world, including Cannondale, Schwinn, GT, Mongoose, Caloi and SUGOI. Dorel creates style and excitement in equal measure to safety, quality and value. Dorel Industries has annual sales of US$2.7 billion and employs approximately 11,200 people in facilities located in twenty-five countries worldwide. For more information, visit dorelsports.com.
