Derby Cycle Doubles e-Bike sales and Scores Record Results

CLOPPENBURG, Germany - In its 2010/2011 fiscal year Derby Cycle AG sold 87,000 electric bikes and a total of 482,000 bicycles. The company’s e-bike sales doubled while total bicycle sales increased by 12.1% compared to the previous fiscal year. It resulted in a 36% growth in revenues to a total of 235.5 million euro.

Eventful year: from hostile take-over attempts to Pon
Germany's largest bicycle manufacturer in terms of sales looks back on a very eventful year that next to record breaking results and a hostile take-over attempt by Accell Group also brought the cooperation with Pon Holdings. The Dutch automotive giant owns at this moment 97% of all Derby Cycle AG shares. This year the take-over by Pon will be finalized and with that Derby will be withdrawn from the Frankfurt stock exchange.

CEO Mathias Seidler of the Cloppenburg bike maker regards the take-over of his company by Pon Holdings of great importance for future growth. In particular as it will bring cooperation with Dutch Gazelle (also owned by Pon Holdings) and access to one of the biggest bike markets in Europe.

49% net income growth
Derby Cycle sold 52,000 more bikes in its 2010/fiscal than in the year before. With that total revenues increased by 62.3 million euro to a total of 235.5. The total sales of 482,000 bicycles under the Kalkhoff, Raleigh, Rixe, Focus and Univega brand names resulted in a 49.3% net income growth to 11.2 million euro (previously: 7.5 million). EBIT was up even more. Earnings before interest and taxes stood at 19.6 million euro (previously: 12.1 million); up 61.7% while the EBIT margin ended at 8.3% (previously: 7.0%).

Strong contribution of e-bikes
As said, Derby doubled its sales of electric bikes from 44,000 in the previous year to 87,000. These figures also reflect the particularly strong contribution that electric bikes are making to the company's growth. CEO Seidler said about the double e-bike sales: “Above all, our electric bikes are making outstanding progress on the market, and have played a particular role in bolstering our growth."

Since 2005 the number of e-bikes sold in Germany have quadrupled. And it is expected that sales of the electric power assisted bikes will continue to grow. In a 106 paged document with the complete overview of the company’s 2010/2011 fiscal year results (click here for that document)
It is said that Germany’s bike industry association – Zweirad Industrie Verband (ZIV) – expects that e-bike sales will grow to a 15% market share in terms of units. This means that in the next five years the e-bike market in Germany is expected to grow to a close to 700,000 units market.

‘Successful implementation of internationalization strategy’
Next to a big growth in revenues from e-bikes, Derby Cycle AG also managed to significantly increase its export. The company’s press release on the 2010/2011 results say: “The share of sales realized abroad were also up and in line with business expansion. The company is now selling around one third of its products outside Germany, which also underscores the successful implementation of Derby Cycle's internationalization strategy.”

Preorder volumes significantly up
In his outlook for Derby’s 2011/2012 fiscal year CEO Mathias Seidler says: "We identified the bicycling megatrend, and offer the right products for all target groups. We have also received very good feedback at the 2011 bicycle trade fairs, and our preorder volumes are up significantly on the previous year.”

"In view of our continuing growth dynamics, we are very confident that we will continue the past financial year's success story in 2011/12," added Uwe Bögershausen, the company's CFO. This confidence is already reflected in the company's forecast: "Based on continued high demand in the electric bikes segment, and a further advance in our internationalization, we anticipate total
sales revenues of between 250 million and 270 million euro for the 2011/12 financial year, and an 8 to 9% EBIT margin."