New Owner Pon Appoints Interim CEO for Gazelle

ALMERE, The Netherlands – Pon Holdings, the automotive conglomerate that last month officially became owner of Dutch Royal Gazelle, has appointed an interim CEO for the company. Xeno Grimmelt (39, photo) is the new Gazelle top manager who is to expand the company, in particular internationally.

The new Gazelle CEO comes from the MAN truck division of Pon Holdings where he was responsible for the import and retail activities in France and in the Benelux countries. Xeno Grimmelt started his carreer at Pon Holdings in 1995 and became group director Wholesale in 2007 with which he became a member of Board of Pon Automotive. At Gazelle Grimmelt succeeds Jeroen Walraven who was since April 15, 2011 CEO of the Dutch bike factory.

According to Gazelle officials quoted in last week’s Eurobike Show Daily; Gazelle sold about 280,000 bikes in 2010 and expects for 2011 to reach total sales of about 300,000 units. About 80% of all sales are in the Netherlands.

Gazelle had a financially very tough 2010 with a drop in turnover to 134,5 million euro . The company’s gross profit dropped 22.9%; from 29,959,000 euro to 23,071,000 euro. Operating loss stood at 4,065,000 euro. In 2009 Gazelle scored a net operating profit of 3,300,000 euro.

The operating loss of somewhat over 4 million euro resulted in a heavy net loss of 17,7 million euro. The big amortization of goodwill and interest are to blame for that. The amortization of goodwill amounted to close to 7 million euro and the interest expenses stood at 6,7 million.