News

PERIGNY, France (November 5) - As business is struggling in heavy economic weather, the French bike maker Planet Fun decided to launch a Parts & Accessories arm through its new subsidiary Add-One. Planet Fun MD Marcel Lammers decided to found Add-One after his P&A-partner Daniel Deschange closed down his loss suffering wholesale business Cycle la France. "With Add-One we want not only to up further upgrade our P&A business, but also to have more custom made components on the bikes we produce", said Lammers. Add-One's P&A activities will consist of replacement parts, and accessories, such as bike computers, bike apparel and eyewear. Price levels will follow those of Planet Fun's current customers: Carrefour and Auchan hypermarkets for the low- and middle-end and Go Sport, Decathlon for the high-end segments. The P&A products will be presented to its customers in blister packs and put in pre-designed shop displays. Lammers estimates, that from the launch of Add-One by January 2003, its turnover will reach € 5 million with 35 employees in its first operational year. "In-house we talk of a sophisticated 2-in-1 solution with Add-One, which will be based at our 22,000 m² Planet Fun plant at Périgny. We already benefit from mass volume purchase for our bike production and this is a nice opportunity to expand our business in this gloomy economic climate", said Lammers. (FN)