Vista, CA
On March 15th, Haro welcomed aboard its new Chief Executive Officer, Bjarke Rasmussen. Formerly Cycling Sports Group's Vice President of Global Operations and Strategic Sourcing, Rasmussen has a long history within the industry, having worked with both Specialized and Cannondale in various leadership roles.
"Bjarke has a proven track record of driving growth, innovation, operations, product design, and customer satisfaction," commented Haro's Board of Directors. "We are confident that he will be a great asset to our company and a visionary leader for all of us."
Rasmussen will oversee the global business for Haro, including Haro Europe and Haro Taiwan.
When asked if Rasmussen had any reservations about coming on board with a smaller brand he commented, "On the contrary; I very much look forward to returning to my roots and working in a fast-paced and agile environment with a highly passionate team. Haro has a very long history, yet in many ways the current market situation and the exciting new products we have in the pipeline make it almost feel like a start-up company."
The changes Rasmussen refers to reflect the shareholders' desire to fundamentally set the brand as an industry leader. "We are focusing on the Haro brand exclusively, turning it into the brand that our riders are looking for and our history deserves," explained Rasmussen.
"With that, we want to be the better option for our riders and retailers; our upcoming product launch will be critical to that. By 2026 we aim to become the brand of choice for our retailers in the segments we choose to be market leaders in, working to become the most relevant brand on the sales floor by segment in 2028."
"We have a small but extremely talented and passionate team designing a whole new product portfolio that will build on our heritage; the way the story is told is very inspiring and I can't wait to help have the new products tell these stories to our riders – stories that will become the foundation for Haro's future identity."
Much like its competitors, supply chain issues represent Haro's biggest challenge. "We, too, suffered from the bullwhip effects of the pandemic supply chain challenges. I am confident that we will overcome these; the changes we have made to become much more vertically integrated regarding our operations will ensure that we will be able to react much faster and be more agile if a situation like this comes up again. These changes also ensure that our lead times and demand-plan accuracy will be a the top level in the industry", noted Rasmussen.
Rasmussen explained that the transition to Haro was a natural fit. "During our first discussions, it was clear that the ambition level for Haro was very high – from becoming a full portfolio brand, over the goals for international expansion, to the way we aspire to become the most easy- to-work-with brand for our retailers, I saw this as a great fit for what I believe is the future for the bike industry. We are going through some fundamental changes in the industry with many new professional managers coming into the various brands and we want to have a balanced approach as to how we handle this – we want to professionalize the way we work while continuing to grow relationships years in the making. Haro believes in partnerships, not just transactional relationships."
