FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany (BRAIN)—When it comes to bicycles, the Dutch know how to treat themselves.
Retailers in The Netherlands enjoyed the highest average sales price in Europe last year, racking up an average bike sale of nearly 750 euros ($942), some 50 percent higher than Germany, the country with the second highest average.
That’s just one of the numbers culled from the European Bicycle Industry & Market Profile, released Tuesday at Eurobike.
The impressive average price, which was for the 2011 calendar year, includes sales of electric bikes — which make up 15 percent of the Dutch market and have an average retail price of over 1,900 euros ($2,400). But the average also includes sales through mass merchant retailers. If you look at bike sales through independent bike shops only, the average retail price was 960 euros ($1,200).
The industry profile was released by the Association of the European Bicycle Industry (COLIBI) and the Association of the European Two-Wheeler Parts' & Accessories' Industry (COLIPED). The profile is based on a study of the markets in 13 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Great Britain, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Turkey.
Besides the high retail price in The Netherlands, this year’s report showed that Italy remains the largest producer of bicycles in Europe producing 2.31 million bikes, or about 20 percent of all the bikes made in the 13 countries studied. Germany was the next largest producer, making about 2.29 million bikes.
Italy is by far the largest producer of bike parts and accessories, too, selling 420 million euros worth of P&A, twice the sales from Germany, the next largest producer.
It might surprise some to see the third largest P&A producer in Europe was Romania, a low-labor cost producer for many well-known European brands, including several prestigious Italian brands. Romania sold about 200 million euros worth of bike P&A in 2011.
In bike sales, though, Germany leads the way, selling 4.1 million bikes in 2011. Great Britain is the second largest market, at 3.6 million, followed by France (3.2 million), Italy (1.8 million) and The Netherlands (1.2 million).
More information: the full report.
