Industry stats

[madcow]

Rather than hijack the other thread where this discussion started, I thought it might be better to post in a new thread.

I should preface this by saying I'm a geek for all things cycling, including numbers. A big part of this info comes from Gluskin Townley, I buy almost every cycling industry report they put together. These numbers are 2010 as I don't think it's right to share the latest report when they rely on sales of them to cover costs. If anyone wants the latest reports, there are 3 or 4 different ones that I'm using for these stats at about $400 each. You can purchase them from Gluskin Townley direct. Some of this stuff comes from other sources, which if I'd like to continue to get info from must remain nameless. obviously I'm not guaranteeing the accuracy of any of this.

Some random stats that I think are interesting:

Percent share of bicycle sales by category
mtb 24%
hybrid/cross 21%
road 20%
comfort 15%
youth 13%
cruiser 6%
recum/tandem 1%

Average Salary (for those that think the LBS is overcharging them)
Owner, $44k
Manager, $33k
Sales/Service manager $29k
mechanic, $20k

38% of shops offer health insurance.

As of January 1, 2010, there were 4,256 specialty bicycle retail store fronts conducting business across the U.S. There were 63 fewer store fronts than at the beginning of 2009, continuing the downward spiral since 2003 when there were 5,358 store fronts.

Total sales for FY 2010.
Shimano, $2,756,669,339
Sram, $524,300,000
Campag, $148,000,000

Net income for FY2010
Shimano, $246,510,473
Sram, $50,000,000
Campag $9,000,000

Shimano is actually the oldest of the 3 main component manufacturers. Shimano is over 80 years old, their first bike parts (freewheels) were made in 1921. They began derailleurs in the 1950's. So contrary to popular belief Shimano as a Company is actually older than Campagnolo, by 12 years. Sram will celebrate their 25th anniversary this year. Though in a way they could be considered older than both of the others. Sram started with just grip shifters in the mid 80's. (Started by Stan Day who is still the current president.) But in the mid 90's Sram purchased the Sachs company which was started in the 1890's. So Srams/Sachs heritage could be said to be the longest of all of them. (personally I think that claim would be a stretch though.)



According to Nbda 70% of all new U.S. bicycle retailers fail in the first 3 years. There is not a significant decrease in the number of retailers due to the number of new shops that continue to open.

Trek which is a privately owned company is estimated to be just short of $1 billion a year in sales.

Giant's yearly sales for 2010 were $1.4 billion USD.

Specialized yearly sales are estimated at about $600 million. Unrelated side note: As I understand it, Specialized has twice been saved from bankruptcy in the last 15 years. The first time was in 1997 when their creation of the full force line led to a massive drop in sales through their dealers (said to be a 30% drop in sales over a year.). Rumor has it they were saved by the owner of the Supergo chain writing them a very large check. This is said to have been a catalyst for securing Specialized bikes in Supergo and later Performance stores. Then again in 2001 they were brought back from the brink (though nobody seems to know how close they were to the edge.) by selling part of the company to Merida and also by Sinyard putting some of his own cash back into the company. In 2011 some rumors began to surface about financial trouble yet again for the company with some estimating a drop in bike sales by as much as 25%, though I personally think this figure is probably not correct.

Global sales for the bicycle industry is projected at $30 Billion for this year. So you can see that even though there are some large players, Shimano, Giant, Trek, etc... there is definitely no dominate force in the industry. Shimano is the biggest and as such is less than 10% of the industry. Though they do wield the largest influence. That's a big part of why some economists believe that the U.S. bicycle industry is perhaps the only current example of perfect competition left. It's going to be interesting to see how the middle ground players, everyone from Campag to Sram in scale survive in the bike 2.0 future. (read Rick Vosper for more on bike 2.0)

This is the saddest statistic of all: Bicycling is not for kids any more. The number of children who ride bicycles declined more than 20 percent between 2000 and 2010, while the number of adults who ride increased slightly.

The number of Americans who ride a bicycle at least six times a year declined from 43.1 million in 2000 to 39.8 million in 2010. This represented an 8 percent decline even as the overall number of Americans adults increased 10 percent

American adults who ride a bicycle at least 110 days a year increased 12 percent during the decade, even as the total number of adult riders was essentially flat

The number of women who ride frequently increased by more than 100,000 between 2000 and 2010, even as the total number of women riders decreased by almost 1.3 million.

[dan682]

Interesting stats. Thanks for posting!

[carpediemracing]

^ that there's a lotta numbers. Interesting. I didn't know that about Shimano, for example. And the numbers really illustrate the difference in company size.

[thwart]

Campagnolo employs about 400 people in Vicenza. Like most Italian workers, they are strongly unionized and well paid. The average Italian metalworker makes about $43,000 a year. In Taichung, Taiwan, the world center of bicycle manufacturing, factory labor goes for about $7,250 a year. In China, it can be had for $3,700.

It wasn't hard to be impressed by Campagnolo's operation. The airy manufacturing complex could house a fleet of 747s, but it's not driven by an assembly-line mindset. Campagnolo's machinists ply their craft at autonomous tooling stations. Components are dropped into small-batch metal bins the size of laundry baskets, which are then hand-wheeled to the next station. The factory floor was clean enough to lick.

Piazza guided me to a progressive stamping die, a 30-foot monster that sent out a shuddering whump! every two seconds. It felt and sounded like the company's beating heart. I watched as steel tape was fed into one end. Newborn Campagnolo Super Record cogs emerged from the other. A machinist in blue coveralls picked a random cog and held it to his eye like a diamond cutter. There are almost no traditional assembly lines at the Campagnolo factory. Each machinist works like an artisan. There's a bit of the Renaissance guild about the place. Which is no coincidence; the artisan-guild concept was created just a few hours south of here, in Florence, in the 12th century.

Yet more reasons to love Campy.

And in spite of a well-paid ($43K vs $7K or less) unionized workforce based in Italy, and a culture of artisanal craft, they still made some money in 2010.

[RkyMtn]

Madcow. Regarding the Total Revenue number for Shimano... Is this for just bike related product sales or for the company as a whole, because I also recall they make fishing reels, and maybe some other equipment, too.

Thanks!

[madcow]

just over 80% of that is from components, (I think the exact number was 83% but don't trust my memory) Not all of the balance is fishing though as it also includes Pearl Izumi.

[Brucer]

Interesting stuff. I had no idea that Shimano dwarfs Campy by such a huge margin.

[1centaur]

The hole between Shimano and Campy was big enough to drive a SRAM truck through, one the OEMs waved enthusiastically on for fear of near monopoly pricing power.

[Ahneida Ride]

the number of children who ride bicycles declined more than 20 percent between 2000 and 2010,

[4Rings6Stars]

Originally Posted by Ahneida Ride

the number of children who ride bicycles declined more than 20 percent between 2000 and 2010,

Replaced their bikes with smartphones and video games...

Very depressing stuff.

[thirdgenbird]

Originally Posted by thwart

Yet more reasons to love Campy.

And in spite of a well-paid ($43K vs $7K or less) unionized workforce based in Italy, and a culture of artisanal craft, they still made some money in 2010.

And yet people ask why campy is more expensive.

If anything, I would question if sram or shimano is overpriced. with those labor rates you would think that they would be able to come in at a much lower price than Campagnolo. I'm hesitant to belive they are putting it all back into development. Sram in particular doesn't offer anything over campy other than a little less weight at a slightly lower cost. It would never happen, but it would be great to compare the GL from sram, shimano, and campy. Campy must run a tight ship to stay price competitive and turn a profit at those labor rates.

I would also love to know the markup places like Quality put on components. I would like to support local shops, but I can't buy Campagnolo from them without paying a good deal more than online. Knowing that money was going to the local employee would be nice, but from what I hear, they have to sell at very low margins to stay in the same ballpark as online vendors.

[madcow]

Originally Posted by 4Rings6Stars

Replaced their bikes with smartphones and video games...

Very depressing stuff.

That is definitely the saddest statistic. When I was a kid a bike was freedom and adventure. During summer vacations I'd leave the house on my bmx bike at sun-up and not come back until dinner time. I hate to think that kids today will be getting the same experiences through video games. When these kids grow up and still aren't riding it's going to have a dramatic impact on the LBS. The wages segment shows it's hard to survive already, but if your potential client base was reduced by 20% it gets even worse.

When you consider that the number of LBS have dropped by 20% in the last decade with the above stat and the growth of ebay/amazon dealers, I'd be willing to be we see a significantly faster decline in coming year. It's completely possible that a 20 year period will cut the number of LBS in half or even more.

I do count myself lucky that both my 4 and 9 year old will choose riding their bikes over just about any other option. They get more excited about going to the bmx track or dirt jumps every Saturday, than they do on Christmas morning.

[rnhood]

That is a bit disappointing about the number of kids cycling. Lets hope it turns around.

The Shimano numbers are impressive. They deserve a big pat on the back. Always a step ahead.

[rwsaunders]

Originally Posted by thwart

Campagnolo employs about 400 people in Vicenza. Like most Italian workers, they are strongly unionized and well paid. The average Italian metalworker makes about $43,000 a year. In Taichung, Taiwan, the world center of bicycle manufacturing, factory labor goes for about $7,250 a year. In China, it can be had for $3,700.

It wasn't hard to be impressed by Campagnolo's operation. The airy manufacturing complex could house a fleet of 747s, but it's not driven by an assembly-line mindset. Campagnolo's machinists ply their craft at autonomous tooling stations. Components are dropped into small-batch metal bins the size of laundry baskets, which are then hand-wheeled to the next station. The factory floor was clean enough to lick.

Piazza guided me to a progressive stamping die, a 30-foot monster that sent out a shuddering whump! every two seconds. It felt and sounded like the company's beating heart. I watched as steel tape was fed into one end. Newborn Campagnolo Super Record cogs emerged from the other. A machinist in blue coveralls picked a random cog and held it to his eye like a diamond cutter. There are almost no traditional assembly lines at the Campagnolo factory. Each machinist works like an artisan. There's a bit of the Renaissance guild about the place. Which is no coincidence; the artisan-guild concept was created just a few hours south of here, in Florence, in the 12th century.

Yet more reasons to love Campy.

And in spite of a well-paid ($43K vs $7K or less) unionized workforce based in Italy, and a culture of artisanal craft, they still made some money in 2010.

The excerpt above which was taken from a recent Bicycling Magazine article is a bit misleading...see the balance of the article as linked below. In the article is states that Campag has two factories in Romania which employ an additional 300 workers who earn on average $14,000/year.

http://www.bicycling.com/news/featur...n-job?page=0,0

[thwart]

In the article is states that Campag has two factories in Romania which employ an additional 300 workers who earn on average $14,000/year.

Well, more power to them then. At least IMO.

Rather than outsource to China or Taiwan, they chose a more local workforce, and paid them twice the going wage in Taiwan.