Hoogeveen, The Netherlands – Former Giant Europe GM Willy Haagmans, left the new bike retail formula for the Netherlands BikeXL in which he partnered from the start in 2006.
BikeXL had a strategic alliance with German bike retail chain Bike Outdoor Company (BOC), and is working with a BOC-license for the 2Danger, Bocas and Bicycle brands. The first pilot store opened last March.
Jan Farnholt, Haagmans’ partner, continues with Bike XL, and wants to expand BikeXL to 20 stores nationwide. “I invested a lot of time and money in the first store and I planned to open the next in September. But that has proven to be too fast a pace, looking from an economic viewpoint. It wouldn’t be healthy to open a next shop so quickly and that’s why I decided to schedule the second store for the beginning of 2008.”
The departure of Willy Haagmans is closely connected with that schedule. “Haagmans was to manage the shops, while I am taking care logistics, distribution and automation. But I can hardly keep a man with Haagmans’ qualities to manage just one shop,” says Farnholt. Farnholt and Haagmans will split up with no hard feelings. (AH)
Saturday, June 30, 2007
.jpg)
To make it easier for you to follow the news in the global bicycle industry we have launched a Bike Europe page on Twitter. With Twitter you are always the first to receive the news updates.
Stay on top of the news. 
