CLOPPENBURG, Germany (BRAIN) Friday April 27 2012 3:05 PM MT—Derby Cycles’ license to sell Raleigh in parts of Europe will continue even as one of its primary competitors, Accell Group, takes over ownership of the British brand.
Derby issued a short statement on Friday addressing the matter:
“Independent of the changing shareholder structures of our licensor we [Derby] have a long-lasting license agreement for the German-speaking countries, which allows us to develop the Raleigh brand for our customers. This we will continue in the future,” Derby said. Derby assembles Raleigh's bikes for those countries at its factory in Cloppenburg, Germany.
Accell previously held a 22 percent stake in Derby Cycle, which it sold to Pon Holdings when it acquired Derby late last year. Accell quickly acquired the Derby shares after Derby went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange last February, a move the Derby board viewed as a potential attempt at a hostile takeover.
Accell announced this week that it had acquired Raleigh Cycle Ltd., including the Raleigh Licensing division, for about $80 million.
Derby Cycle owned Raleigh between 1987 and 2001, when it sold the brand to Alan Finden-Crofts, but has maintained a license to sell the brand in Europe’s German-speaking countries. Derby Cycle also owns Focus, Kalkhoff, Rixe and Univega. It is Germany’s largest bike manufacturer and one of Europe’s leading bike companies with 235.5 million euros ($309 million) in annual revenue last year.
