FULLERTON, CA (BRAIN)—Toby Henderson founded THE Cycle Group in November and recently hired Michelle Enriquez as the company’s vice president of operations and Michael Gamstetter is senior brand manager. All three were formerly employees of VSI Products.
Gamstetter is a former editor of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News.
THE Cycle Group (TCG) will handle warehousing, distribution to distributors and aftermarket design of Lee Chi’s Promax brand in the United States. Dealers will still get Promax products from their usual channels, but TCG now provides stateside support and warrantee service to Promax’s current distributors.
“We are handling all of Promax’s aftermarket business in the U.S., and we will be providing support to its OEM customers as well,” said Henderson. “We are also developing Box Components, our in-house component brand.”
Given Henderson and Gamstetter’s BMX background, TCG’s first set of Promax designs will target BMX riders. But Henderson said the company will be offering fresh products in all Promax categories, from city to mountain bikes.
“We really want to give Promax a new look, so we have quite a few new designs ready to go. And we are working on new mountain bike disc brakes and other mountain product,” Henderson said.
Many of TCG’s Box Components will be made by Lee Chi, but Henderson said they will use other vendors, especially for its carbon products.
TCG will debut Box Components at the Silver Dollar Nationals in Reno, Nevada, on January 13. Also at the event, ABA National #1 Pro Marc Willers will start the season riding for Box Components.
—Matt Wiebe
mwiebe@bicycleretailer.com
