News

ENGELSKIRCHEN, Germany – On  March 21, German Jupp Arents Bike GmbH – JAB for short – had to ask for insolvency. JAB  has been selling the Longus brand since 2001, which is sold mainly through buyers group ZEG. Receiver of this insolvency is the Gummersbach-based attorney chamber Dohrmann & Partner.

With this insolvency an era of German bicycle history is coming to a sad end. Industry veteran Jupp Arents, founder and GM of JAB, was born into a Cologne ‘bicycle family’. After opening his own bike shop, Arents started his industry career as representative of Peugeot in Germany. Later he introduced the Koga Miyata brand to his home market. Therefore he was also the first importing Giant bicycles. Later on he introduced Taiwan’s second largest producer Merida to the German market. Once he sold up to 50,000 Merida bikes per year; those were the days of the mountain bike boom...

Arents’ most disappointing experience was when Merida ended their longtime relationship. That was in 2001. Merida granted distribution to Centurion-Renner (now Merida & Centurion GmbH – MCG in short). They explained this decision with Arents’ strategy to sell the Merida brand mainly through buyers group ZEG. Merida feared that they wouldn’t be able to build up an image as an IBD brand. So they pulled the plug.

In 2001 – with the help of his son Sascha and his son-in-law Kai Kolepka - Jupp Arents started JAB based in Engelskirchen. They acquired the trademark for the Longus brand from German Shimano distributor, Paul Lange who created that brand at the beginning of the MTB boom, and started to introduce it to the market. Longtime business partner ZEG supported Arents right from the start by buying an amount of Longus bicycles. JAB employed a total of five people. Both Jupp and Sascha Arents were not available for comments. (JB)