MELBOURNE, Australia (BRAIN)—The Australian bicycle industry is expected to import more than 1.3 million bikes this year, marking the second highest total in history behind 2007.
That’s according to a report released late last week by Australia’s Cycling Promotion Fund. The improvements in import numbers have been largely in the adult bike category with kid’s bike numbers staying consistent for the past five years, the report said.
Through November, Australian had imported 1,296,424 bikes. That number was projected to exceed 1.3 million by the end of the year. Of those, 832,083, or 64 percent, were expected to be adult bikes. That’s nearly double the imports from 1998, when 656, 631 bikes came into the country.
“These imports, which act as a projection of expected sales in the coming months, demonstrate some increased confidence in the market and an expectation that the industry is slowly working through the impact of the global financial crisis,” the report said.
In the past 10 years, sales of children’s bikes have increased by 5 to 10 percent while adult bikes almost doubled during the same time period.
The Cycling Promotion Fund is a group based in Melbourne, Australia, with the objective of increasing the level of safe cycling in the country through advocacy and increased government funding. Members include Giant, Felt, Gazelle and Shimano.
—Nicole Formosa
nformosa@bicycleretailer.com
