Bicycle sales are at their lowest level in 39 years, the latest statistics from Britain’s Bicycle Association reveal, and with government support, the collapse will intensify, leaders of the industry organisation warned at an exclusive members’ assembly on Thursday (8 February). . .
I saw the PowerPoint presentation projected at the meeting; This will have led all industry leaders to believe that the worst of the post-pandemic crisis is possibly over.
The government has touted London’s Brompton as a global story of good fortune, but even sales of folding motorcycles are down, down 22% in 2023.
Brompton CEO Will Butler-Adams admitted that 2023 was a terrible year for motorcycle sales in the UK and EU, but Brompton motorcycles were sold all over the world and the company was isolated to some extent. The total market price for 2024 fell 6%, more than an 18% drop last year.
One slide warned members that overall market volume would “remain well below 2019 degrees in 2026” and that a “continued long-term decline” is “likely government intervention. ”
Cycle use is also down, according to Department for Transport (Dft) statistics, with the pandemic’s “bike boom” peaking in March 2021 and falling precipitously since. Participation is now back to pre-pandemic levels, but the DfT’s cycle index predicts a likely decline.
Sales of electric motorcycles, currently the most successful sector of the cycling industry, are down 7% in volume and 5% in value. In 2023 only 150,000 electric motorcycles will be sold.
Inventory levels remained incredibly high. In 2022, UK suppliers imported 257,270 electric motorcycles, but only 161,000 were sold at retail. Storing those motorcycles and probably selling them at a loss is a pain for suppliers.
The cycle has had a tumultuous few months, with several high-profile company closures.
Recent missteps come with the demise of industry-leading player Moore Large, the management of market-leading store Wiggle/Chain Reaction, and last year, Nottingham Raleigh revealed it would be shutting down its long-standing portions and accessories business.
Isla Rowntree, founder of the children’s bike brand Islabikes, cited the struggles in a shrinking market when announcing the company’s planned closure.
Sales of cycle accessories and clothing have taken a resounding hit, reveals the Bicycle Association’s sales monitoring service with an 8% reduction in 2023 over the previous year by volume and an 11% reduction in value.
Cycling technology—such as bicycle computers, GPS navigation devices and heart rate monitors—is down by 12% in volume and 31% in value.
Overall, 1.55 million bicycles were sold in 2023, an annual low last experienced in 1985 following the bursting of the BMX bubble. With the introduction of mountain bikes, sales subsequently recovered, with the UK industry typically selling more than 3 million bicycles annually.
The Bicycle Association has been seeking governance for the cycling industry for several years. In 2018, it commissioned a report defending the “industry case” for government subsidies and the price of the cycling sector on the UK economy. It claimed that the UK cycling industry was priced three times as much as the industry. metallurgical company in the United Kingdom and hired twice as many people. Cycling-related businesses generate at least £5. 4 billion for the UK economy each year and 64,000 jobs, the report said.
The sale of electric motorcycles should be subsidized by the government, the Bicycle Association has long argued. The organisation also needs the removal of VAT on sales of children’s bikes and investment to build the innovation capacity of the UK cycling industry.
Worryingly for the industry, sales of children’s bikes have been trending downwards for some time and were 8% lower in 2023 than the previous year.
Online searches for high-end motorcycles compared to entry-level ones showed that “significant maximum drop in interest at the access-level,” members of the Bicycle Association learned.
With fewer newbie cyclists, the slump will continue to worsen, Bicycle Association members were told.
Sales of road and gravel motorcycles bucked the trend, expanding 8 percent and 11 percent, respectively, though all other categories declined. Triathlon motorcycle sales fell by 34% in 2023.
The Bicycle Association’s presentation revealed that sales from the pandemic-induced motorcycle boom may have been smart for motorcycle department stores that can simply stock up, but suppliers outdid themselves. Just under 3 million motorcycles were imported in 2022, but only 2. 13 million were sold in retail. This excess stock has been reduced in 2023 as supply catches up with demand, but many more suppliers are at risk of going out of business in the coming months if the decline in sales continues.
The UK government, which took a populist pro-car stance last year, is unlikely to support the bicycle industry.
Earlier this week, a report by the Public Policy Research Institute (IPPR) think tank concluded that the lack of funding for physical activity over the past decade has negatively affected cycling and walking in the UK by not making them, as modes of use. It takes a year, he insists, in the short and long term for infrastructure construction and other interventions, to achieve the economic, environmental and health benefits of activeArray.
In the 2016 to 2021 period, an average of £148 per person per year was spent on motorists, calculates IPPR.
Last year, the already low level of funding for Active Travel England was cut by £233 million and the rhetoric surrounding the government’s new “plan for drivers” has shown that promoting active travel is no longer considered the priority it was for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who, at the height of the pandemic, promised a future “golden age for cycling.”