WILTON, Conn. (BRAIN) — Dorel Sports has appointed Russell Merry as senior vice president and general manager of North America and the U.K. for Cycling Sports Group. He takes over following the departure of Dave Manchester, who had been with CSG for 18 years, the past 10 as senior vice president of marketing and sales for North America.
Manchester resigned from the business to pursue other opportunities, CSG said. He could not be reached by phone for comment for this story.
The move is part of continuing brand changes and restructuring at CSG, which began in April 2014 under the helm of Peter Woods, who took over as president and CEO of Dorel’s bike business, said Michael DeLeon, a spokesman for the company.
Changes have included the promotion of Nick Hage earlier this year to VP, sales and operations for CSG’s Cannondale brand, as well as multiple hires across global marketing, engineering, product management, global sourcing, quality and compliance, human resources and IT in recent months.
Merry will take on leadership of Cycling Sports Group’s North American business. He reports to Woods. Merry has more than 25 years of experience in the bike industry, and six with Dorel Sports as managing director of Cycling Sports Group UK.
“Russell is an industry veteran and proven leader who is bringing his expertise as a general manager to one of our most critical markets,” said Woods, in a press release. “Under Russell’s leadership, we will be investing in improvements in supply chain, logistics, technology infrastructure and marketing to become a more effective partner to our North American retailers and dealers.”
Merry started in the bicycle business in 1989 when he and his brother worked in their father’s bicycle shop in Poole, U.K. The shop was the springboard for a distribution business that was acquired by Dorel Industries in 2009, creating CSG UK. Since then, the CSG UK business has tripled in size.
“One of my aspirations is to make it easier to do business with us,” said Merry. “To have best in class in terms of logistics. We have to have a strong focus to improve the supply chain and logistics and infrastructure to make sure we match industry’s best.”
In addition to Merry’s new role, Hage, who has had full line management of the Cannondale sales force in North America since April, will now also pick up the GT/Schwinn sales team. This gives him full sales leadership responsibility for IBD bike, apparel and parts and accessories for CSG North America.
Merry will be based out of the U.K. but will travel extensively to the U.S.
Dorel Sports also recently hired Alfred Chan as chief operating officer. And the company is in the process of hiring a North American head of marketing and dedicated head of finance, Merry said, to strengthen its organizational structure that supports its U.S. business.
