German Bike Sales Dropped 8%

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany – During the first half of 2009 bike sales in Germany dropped by 8%. This was announced by German Industry Association ZIV’ managing director Rolf Lemberg (photo) at yesterday’s press conference which was the media kick-off meeting for the 18th Eurobike show.

“Even though our industry is doing relatively well compared with the overall situation and the consequences of the economic recession, we do not live in total isolation,” says the German Industry Organization ZIV. The ZIV continues: “domestic deliveries of bicycles declined by nearly 8% at the end of June 2009 compared with the same time period in 2008.”

According to the findings of the ZIV, a total of 2,554,000 bicycles were delivered to the German market in the first six months of 2009 compared to 2,774,000 in the first six months of 2008. Domestic deliveries are defined as the number of units made available to the market, and consist of production plus imports minus export.

“If we take into account the slight reduction in stocks, which according to our experience took place across the entire range of suppliers, then sales figures to end consumers could have definitely been more positive”, says Rolf Lemberg.

“To correctly interpret these figures it is important to realize that the decline in sales took place primarily outside the traditional retail trade. According to our findings, bicycle retailers were able to further expand their share of the overall market during the first six months of 2009.”

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“Bicycle shops had a 56% market share in 2006, were able to increase this to 63% in 2008 and their share presumably rose to over 65% during the first six months of 2009. This illustrates the orientation of today’s consumers towards high-quality products and reveals the desire of end consumers to receive top-notch advice and professional service with these products.”

Production during the first six months of this year fell from 1,590,000 bicycles to 1,446,000 units, a decline of approximately 9%. Imports into Germany during the first six months of the year were 1,679,000 bicycles compared to 1,774,000 units in 2008, which represents a decline of roughly 5.4%

According to the ZIV e-Bikes were able to increase their popularity under the German people and despite the economic crisis this bike category was able to score higher sales during the first half of this year.

For the second half of 2009 the ZIV predicts a stable period, meaning that the annual domestic deliveries would not decline by more than 8%. “Quite the contrary, we expect only a slight drop this year, with a year-end decline in the domestic market of approximately 5 to 6%”, concludes Rolf Lemberg.