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PON Holdings Buys Dorels Bicycle Sports group


DieselnDust

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Giant are not going to be happy to lose their crown!

To be fair they only have to buy a small company and they'll be back on top....

Edited by Eldron
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What impact (if any?) does this have on a company like Omnico, who import Dorel products as a massive part of their business model?

 

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21 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

What impact (if any?) does this have on a company like Omnico, who import Dorel products as a massive part of their business model?

 

 

That is an interesting question. Since the sale will only be concluded  by march 2022 probably nothing in the shorter term. PON Holdings also don't have one distributor per country. Currently Factor Bikes resides with PureMotion Sports and thats probably ok because Factor has a small market share in SA but Cannondale is a big brand and this might cause PON holdings brands to migrate to the bigger distributor at the expense of the smaller. I really hope this doesn't happen but we'll have to wait and see how it plays out in the boardrooms

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3 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

 

That is an interesting question. Since the sale will only be concluded  by march 2022 probably nothing in the shorter term. PON Holdings also don't have one distributor per country. Currently Factor Bikes resides with PureMotion Sports and thats probably ok because Factor has a small market share in SA but Cannondale is a big brand and this might cause PON holdings brands to migrate to the bigger distributor at the expense of the smaller. I really hope this doesn't happen but we'll have to wait and see how it plays out in the boardrooms

It will affect the likes of Rush sports as well.

Historically PON have run their entities separately, but if some brand distributers don't want to play nice then it might be interesting down the line.

We are a pretty small piece of the global market, so I doubt it will affect them, but it may affect US.

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11 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

 

That is an interesting question. Since the sale will only be concluded  by march 2022 probably nothing in the shorter term. PON Holdings also don't have one distributor per country. Currently Factor Bikes resides with PureMotion Sports and thats probably ok because Factor has a small market share in SA but Cannondale is a big brand and this might cause PON holdings brands to migrate to the bigger distributor at the expense of the smaller. I really hope this doesn't happen but we'll have to wait and see how it plays out in the boardrooms

isn't that what happened before? didn't someone else import cannondale and omnico had GT, and then when they merged globally omnico got the whole shebang of everything under the new Dorel umbrella? What happened when dragons used to do both Giant and Santa Cruz locally?

if it does come down to a winner takes all scenario, and Rush gets the nod, then I expect Omnico to go shopping for a new high end but underserved brand to bring in. 

If Rush sports lost SC, then that would be a much bigger issue for them.

 

 

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Personally I think it's unlikely that PON would ever want to consolidate ALL their brands at a local distributor level. Just looking at the likes of Santa Cruz, Cannondale and Focus there's a fair amount of competitive overlap in the offering from each (high-end road/MTB) and each brand would require a particular approach with a well suited "custodian". To my mind you'd want a separate stable representing each high-end brand in a particular market to do each one justice rather than risking dilution having them all under one roof.

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2 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

It will affect the likes of Rush sports as well.

Historically PON have run their entities separately, but if some brand distributers don't want to play nice then it might be interesting down the line.

We are a pretty small piece of the global market, so I doubt it will affect them, but it may affect US.

Asked all of these questions to my lbs.

My opinion and his differs, he reckon no change.

I am thinking Rush Sport doing Dale going forward.

Detail article on Slowtwitch about the American market.

https://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/Pon_Buys_Dorel_Sports_Why_And_What_Does_That_Mean__8113.html

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1 hour ago, DJuice said:

Asked all of these questions to my lbs.

My opinion and his differs, he reckon no change.

I am thinking Rush Sport doing Dale going forward.

Detail article on Slowtwitch about the American market.

https://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/Pon_Buys_Dorel_Sports_Why_And_What_Does_That_Mean__8113.html

I don't think Rush would want Cannondale. I'd have thought if they wanted another bike brand it would be GT.

But like Matt says, I'm not sure the acquisition will have too much impact on the way things are done here. 

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1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

I don't think Rush would want Cannondale. I'd have thought if they wanted another bike brand it would be GT.

But like Matt says, I'm not sure the acquisition will have too much impact on the way things are done here. 

My thinking is that BE from Rush will be after the portfolio of bikes that Cannondale provide, to go head on with Scott. 

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3 hours ago, DJuice said:

My thinking is that BE from Rush will be after the portfolio of bikes that Cannondale provide, to go head on with Scott. 

PON won't be changing distributors for Cannondale, GT, Schwinn and Mongoose or Caloi. Does Ruch have the capex to front such a large portfolio of bikes? 

As Matt suggests, with PON owning so many brads they won't want their eggs in one basket

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31 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

PON won't be changing distributors for Cannondale, GT, Schwinn and Mongoose or Caloi. Does Ruch have the capex to front such a large portfolio of bikes? 

As Matt suggests, with PON owning so many brads they won't want their eggs in one basket

To be honest, I have now idea of the capabilities of Rush.

The Raleigh/Scott buy-out was probably a nice pay day, enough for me to ride into the sunset on that Baum bike I am lusting after.

To introduce Focus to SA, would have been to expensive for Rush to take the risk.

Cannondale however is established and by my own observation even took some market share from Specialized.

Rush can not compete with Santa Cruz on price and rage with Cannondale.

Feels like Omnico is not giving enough traction for GT, Schwinn and Mongoose.

Know of a few GT-i drives and Mongoose Meteors that have done epic back in the day.

Those meteors was good value for money.

Few affordable gravel bikes from any of the above brands, few GT "enduro" bikes for SA market.

 

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Interesting how things come full circle in so many ways, BE was instrumental in ProBike and creating Scott Sports ZA before leaving. Probike also had to create Axis as an in house brand when Raleigh made the mistake of pulling the brand elsewhere. The Pon Group oversee Raleigh.
 
Keep in mind Rush Sport also do in house brands Apex and Signal, catering the kids/youth and entry to lower mid range bikes (under 20k) with Santa Cruz being their flagship boutique brand, also part of the Pon Group. There's a certain gap there that Rush may or may not want to fill as far as ranging goes.

The guys at Rush Sports are not fools, they have a strong industry experience across the board and could pretty much go anywhere in the world among the big brands. Likewise Omnico has been around a long time and built an impressive operation, including their own in house brands such as Ryder. 
So there may be some shuffling or even a shared model between Rush and Omnico, stranger things have happened. Purely speculative however, but we are certainly going to be seeing more consolidation locally. 

Incidentally the Pon Group also took over one of the largest LBS chains in the US, 12 shops in total. Thereby squeezing out Specialized in those regions.  
Locally we see the More Group taking on more agencies, buying direct and developing in house brands through Cycle Lab. Orbea for example.

Local cycling media has become somewhat reticent in covering serious industry news, some good FYI reading here - 

https://www.bike-eu.com/market/nieuws/2021/10/pon-becomes-biggest-in-bicycles-with-dorel-sports-take-over-10141466

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/retail-news/2021/08/18/bay-area-retail-powerhouse-mikes-bikes-sold-pon-group-owner-santa-cruz-and?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=bicycle+retailer+and+industry+news&utm_campaign=a9028a9b-eeb2-4f4d-95a0-8b8495a250ed#.YWgIwNlByqA


 

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On 10/13/2021 at 1:18 PM, Shebeen said:

isn't that what happened before? didn't someone else import cannondale and omnico had GT, and then when they merged globally omnico got the whole shebang of everything under the new Dorel umbrella? What happened when dragons used to do both Giant and Santa Cruz locally?

if it does come down to a winner takes all scenario, and Rush gets the nod, then I expect Omnico to go shopping for a new high end but underserved brand to bring in. 

 

 

Interested in what brands your thinking off??

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