After the Corona boom, the German bicycle industry is preparing for a normalization of its business. In the short term, there are full warehouses at the manufacturers, said the spokesman for the two-wheeler industry association (ZIV), Reiner Kolberg, on Thursday at an online press conference.
In the second half of 2022, due to the economic uncertainties, there was a clear reluctance among customers, who postponed their purchasing decisions. The time of the extreme special effects from the Corona years is over, reported Kolberg. We are now getting back to normal, but do not see a recession, but rather stable demand in the long term. The association does not intend to present exact sales figures for the year as a whole until March. According to the ZIV, around 1.38 million bicycles were assembled in Germany in the first half of 2022. Of these, around 800,000 were e-bikes.
Vice-Chairman Tobias Hempelmann reported for the Association of German Bicycle Trade (VDZ) that there was no reluctance to buy in the bicycle shops. A driver of the business are new agreements on company bike leasing, for example in the public sector, which led to additional demand. Hempelmann criticized some suppliers who were now putting a lot of pressure on retailers to take their bikes off. Here one is far away from a “community of destiny”.
The comparatively small manufacturer Velotraum from Weil der Stadt reported ongoing supply chain problems with important bicycle components. This crisis, which is already known from the Corona period, will continue in 2023, said managing director Stefan Stiener.
