WELS, Austria (MIND)– Rossignol Groupe has actually marketed Felt Bicycles to the Pierer Flexibility, best referred to as the moms and dad firm of the KTM motorbike brand name, Pierer revealed Tuesday.
Rossignol hadacquired the Southern California-based bike brand in 2017
While Pierer has a lengthy background in gas-powered bikes, it is relocating strongly right into e-bikes as well as various other low-voltage two-wheelers in recent times. In the united state the Austria-based firm started marketing markets its Husqvarna e-bikes in the united state as well as Canada, previously this year, mostly with its motorsports dealers.
Stefan Pierer, the Chief Executive Officer of Pierer Flexibility, stated, “The procurement of Felt Bicycles fits completely with the total approach of Pierer E-Bikes– that of ending up being a worldwide gamer in the area of two-wheel movement, with both electrical as well as non-electric bikes, throughout all biking groups. With FELT we have the ability to broaden our bike profile as well as additionally highly go into the North American market with a developed, high-performance brand name. The firm is additionally greatly associated with competitors, which brings an additional tourist attraction for us.”
The firm acquired the Really felt brand name possessions as well as service possessions in Europe as well as The United States And Canada. Really felt staff members will certainly be incorporated with the Pierer E-BIkes Gmbh team.
Rossi’s leave from a multi-brand bike approach
The Really felt sale complies with Rossignol’s offloading of its Time bike and Time pedal businesses previously this as well as finishes the French mega-brand’s leave from a multi-brand approach in biking. Rossignol will certainly remain to market Rossignol-branded bikes.
After the acquisition of Time in 2016 as well as Really felt the list below year, Rossignol had actually informed financiers it was making a solid press right into counter-seasonal offerings as environment modification made the ski service much less dependable.
” The goal is to enhance winter sports with an exterior task that isn’t linked to winter months sporting activities, to include a 2nd column to the team so it does not depend just on snow,” the firm’s president, Bruno Cercley, said in 2015, as the firm was discussing to take control of Time after the fatality of its owner, Roland Cattin.
” Biking is a field with solid possible as well as is extremely vibrant, which would certainly be extremely corresponding in between winter months as well as summer season,” Cercley included.
Nonetheless, by 2020 the firm discovered that Time’s French-made frameworks could not match the rate of Asian-made rivals as well as sales dropped promptly as well as revealed that it planned to close, restructure or sell the Time business
This springtime it marketed the moment bike as well as framework service to a brand-new firm established by united state bike sector professional Tony Karklins as well as a French companion. It marketed Time’s pedal as well as footwear service to SRAM, which latelyresumed Time pedal production, in Portugal
Rossignol never ever openly revealed it was aiming to sell Felt, yet after the moment sale it appeared unavoidable.
In a declaration Tuesday, component of which is converted listed below, Rossignol stated it would certainly relaunch its self-branded bike line in 2022.
This sale of Felt as well as refocusing of our bike service on the Rossignol brand name is completely in accordance with our approach to release the Rossignol brand name in multi-season hill sporting activities as well as way of life influenced by towering life.
It is with wonderful interest as well as solid passions that we approach this brand-new phase of growth of our biking tasks. Biking is a calculated axis for the Rossignol Team, which will certainly currently concentrate its sources as well as efforts in the area of biking on the Rossignol brand name as well as the growth of its mountain bicycle as well as electrical mountain bicycle varieties.
The Team will rely upon its abilities gotten given that the procurement of Really felt in 2017, its brand-new specialized groups as well as its brand-new company to make sure the effective public launch of the brand-new Rossignol Bikes variety from March 2022. And also we will certainly remain to highly create these tasks in the coming years within where biking, specifically in the hills, is ending up being significantly prominent.
” We want the Really felt brand name as well as its groups a lot success in this brand-new phase of its growth within the PIERER Flexibility team, which is an optimal companion to make sure a brilliant future for Felt. Biking, specifically in the hills, is expanding. The bike task under the Rossignol brand name, enhances as well as finishes our historic Winter months identification as well as will certainly enable the Team to make use of in the long-term the considerable capacity of the Rossignol brand name on the planet of hill sporting activities as well as way of life in all periods,” stated Vincent Wauters, President/CEO of the Rossignol Team.
Shared moto’ origins
The sale brings Really felt back to its motorbike origins, in a feeling: Firm name as well as founder Jim Felt had his beginning in the motorbike sector prior to (as well as after) he started welding customized triathlon frameworks in the late 1980s. He later on partnered with Expense Duehring as well as Michael Müllmann to introduce Really felt as a full bike brand name in 2001. Jim Felt left the firm in 2017, a couple of months after its sale to Rossignol as well as Duehring left a year later on.
Around the world, Pierer marketed concerning 40,000 e-bikes in the very first fifty percent of 2021 in spite of supply chain restrictions.
Pierer Flexibility was referred to as KTM Industries Team till 2019. The firm has almost 5,000 staff members as well as tape-recorded sales of 1.1 billion euros ($ 1.25 billion) in its newest fifty percent . It is traded on the Swiss stock market underthe ticker symbol PMAG
The firm markets mechanized two-wheeled cars under the KTM, Husqvarna as well as GASGAS brand names. It additionally markets e-bikes under the Husqvarna, R Raymon as well as GASGAS brand names. 
Stefan Pierer took control of the firm’s motorcycle service after KTM’s bankruptcy in 1992.
( KTM bikes as well as e-bikes, seldom seen in the united state, are made as well as marketed by KTM Fahrrad, one more Austrian firm with common origins yet which is not attached to Pierer. KTM Industries Team altered its name to Pierer Flexibility Team in a quote to finish complication in between the business.)
E-mobility emphasis
In 2014 Pierer developed an e-bike department headed by German e-bike pioneers Susanne and Felix Puello, the previous handling supervisors of Accell Team’s Winora Team. In March it revealed a joint endeavor with battery cell manufacturer Varta to create reduced voltage lithium-ion battery systems. It additionally revealed a 50-50 joint endeavor with Maxcom LTD, an OEM bike producer, to broaden its manufacturing facility in Bulgaria, spending 40 million euros. A manufacturing facility with ability to make 350,000 e-bikes yearly is anticipated to go on the internet in 2023.
Around the world, Pierer marketed concerning 40,000 e-bikes in the very first fifty percent of 2021 in spite of supply chain restrictions.
Husqvarna E-Bicycles was introduced in The United States and Canada early in 2021. The brand name currently notes concerning 50 united state suppliers– all powersport suppliers– on its internet site. R Raymon as well as GASGAS e-bikes are not yet marketed in the united state
Really felt’s future
What does this mean for Felt, which does not presently market an e-bike?
One supervisor at Felt stated there are extra social links in between Felt as well as Pierer’s two-wheeled brand names than with Rossignol’s winter-sliding emphasis.
” Winter sports is wonderful, yet I believe the two-wheeled placement is great,” the supervisor stated, keeping in mind that Pierer’s brand names are greatly associated with mechanized competing around the globe, long as Felt has a lengthy background of sustaining groups as well as professional athletes in biking as well as triathlon. “They are everything about maximizing items to go quick as well as be the globe’s ideal. That was songs to my ears,” the supervisor stated.
Over the last few years Really felt eliminated mountain bicycle, cruisers, as well as e-bikes from its line as well as placed the concentrate on rate: decline bar roadway as well as crushed rock bikes, triathlon bikes, as well as a tiny option of crossbreed bikes.
Still, offered Pierer’s concentrate on mechanized movement, it would not be shocking to see Felt return right into the e-bike market at some point, possibly using Really felt e-bikes with IBDs while Husqvarna continues to be a motorsport supplier brand name.
KTM lately started an expansion of its corporate campus in Murrieta, California, not also much from Felt’s head office in Rancho Santa Margarita, The Golden State. The school adjoins KTM’s personal motorsport center that consists of 2 supercross tracks, 2 severe off-road programs, as well as a test competitors area.
Felt is anticipated to stay at its existing head office in the meantime.
