A significant investment in the mountain bike industry sees Lapierre, Ghost and Haibike under new ownership.
Although pro rider contracts usually dominate industry news at this time of year, company ownerhip has prove a lot more newsworthy of late.
Another week and another announcement of new capital flowing into the mountain bike industry. This time it is the Accell Group, purchased by KKR, an American investment firm.
What does that mean for you? Well, if you are a Lapierre, Ghost, Haibike, or Raleight rider, KKR now owns all those brands. And will decide on their future business tsatreggy and product segmentation.
Read more: where is the mountain bike industry going?
Lapierre staff won’t change
The deal was closed at £1.3bn and KKR is keen to keep the Accell structures in place. That means Accell CEO, CFO and CSCO remain in their positions. There are no plans to reduce staff numbers at any constituent Accell brands, either.
Haibike is known chiefly to British mountain biker’s as Sam Pilgrim’s e-bike sponsor, but Lapierre has a more substantial presence in the mountain bike market. An innovative French frame brand, Lapierre is recognized for its daring frame design and boldness integrating new suspension technologies.
Curvy top tubes and some very different shock mount configurations have always made Lapierre bikes stand out at the trailhead. The current Spicy enduro bike, for instance, has a coil shock that sits in the seat tube hollow.
There could be more electronic integration in future
A decade ago, Lapierre also showed its willingness to experiment with electronic suspension, revealing a RockShox Monarch RT3 with on its 2012 Zesty, with active lock-out.
But what will the KRR takeover of Accell, and by implication Lapierre, mean for mountain bikers? A clue can be found in one of the quotes from official new ownership communication.
“The execution of our strategic agenda, launch new innovations for green mobility and support to the benefit of people and communities.” These are the words of Ton Anbeek, CEO of Accell. And it appears that e-bikes, especially as a form of integrated mobility, is an anchor feature of the future Accell vision under KKR ownership.