LOS ANGELES (BRAIN) — An announcement by Pacific Glory Worldwide last week has raised questions about how Fuji, SE and Tuesday bikes will be distributed in the U.S. next year.
PGW, which is owned by Taiwan-based manufacturer Ideal Bike, announced it is now distributing those brands to U.S. dealers. The company's U.S. operations are led by Anthony Mikrut, an industry veteran who told BRAIN that PGW will use two third-party logistics warehouses to service dealers. Mikrut is hiring staff and said the company's U.S. employees will work remotely; Mikrut is based in Colorado.
The announcement said PGW will bring brand management and logistics under one team. "Retailers can expect better forecasting, stronger brand stories, and direct access to marketing programs designed specifically for the shop level," the release said. Mikrut told BRAIN that PGW will rely on dealer sales exclusively, with no consumer-direct sales of its bikes.
Philadelphia's BikeCo., however, has been the brands' distributor since soon after Advanced Sports Enterprises — the owner of distributor ASI and the Performance retail chain — went bankrupt in 2018. BikeCo's president. Frank Zimmer, declined to talk to BRAIN about the situation, but emails that Zimmer has sent to BikeCo dealers recently said BikeCo is talking to PGW about how the companies will co-exist next year.
"(W)e are currently in discussions with PGW to determine what the future distribution model for Fuji, SE, and Tuesday will look like in the North American market and what role BikeCo will choose to play in this model," Zimmer wrote to dealers in a Dec. 18 email.
The email clarified that BikeCo is continuing to sell its current inventory of SE, Fuji and Tuesday bikes. It also said BikeCo expects to receive some shipments of those brands in the first quarter of 2026.
Importantly, PGW, as a part of the Ideal Bike Co., owns the Fuji, SE, and Tuesday bike brands. However BikeCo owns the Breezer brand, and Zimmer's letters indicated that BikeCo is looking to add other brands to its lineup, which will be announced after the first of the year. He said the Breezer line is getting a major refresh for 2026.
Zimmer's letters also mentioned what several BikeCo dealers have told BRAIN: That the distributor has had difficulty obtaining inventory in the last two seasons, even though SE bikes have been in great demand. Zimmer's letters said shifting production due to tariffs caused delays and extra costs while BikeCo's "primary factory partner" (apparently referring to Ideal) had faced financial difficulties, in part due to the bankruptcy of several customers. Public filings show that Ideal stood to lose millions of dollars due to the VanMoof bankruptcy in 2023 and the YT Industries insolvency this year.
Ideal has a net loss of NT$360 million ($11.4 million) in the first three fiscal quarters this year. In a presentation to investors earlier this month, Ideal said it would begin dealer-direct sales of the SE, Fuji and Tuesday brands in the U.S. in 2026 (see the screenshot from the investor presentation).
BikeCo was formed after the ASE bankruptcy, when Tiger Group, a liquidation company, and some Hong Kong-based investors formed it to distribute the brands. In 2019 Tiger Group sold its share in BikeCo to the other investors.
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Screenshot of a slide from a recent Ideal Bike investor presentation.
