Industry News
PARK CITY, Utah (BRAIN) — POC has appointed cycling industry veteran Ben Coates as managing director for North America. Coates joins POC following 15 years at Trek Bicycle.
KETCHUM, Idaho (BRAIN) — 7Mesh, Orbea and Sawtooth Brewery are in the first round of sponsors announced for the inaugural Impact Media Summit. The event produced by CrankTank is this June in the Sun Valley, Idaho, area.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (BRAIN) — Haute Route has added global nonprofit World Bicycle Relief as a designated charity partner for all North American events this year.
CHICAGO (BRAIN) — After nine straight days of a winter storm that delivered record snowfall in the Windy City and caused nearly 500 flight cancellations at Chicago O'Hare and Midway airports over the weekend, the weather took a turn for the better as the industry descended into Chicago for the start the Chicagoland Area Bicycle Dealers Association show.
BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — President Trump's budget eliminates the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Program, which has supported bicycle-friendly projects. Trump's proposed infrastructure program also largely ignores bicycle infrastructure, according to PeopleForBikes.
SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. (BRAIN) — Paul Swift has sold the majority interest in BikeFit Systems LLC and formed CyclePoint LLC. The new company is the exclusive educational provider for BikeFit Systems and will offer BikeFit Level 1 and Level 2 courses online.
OSAKA, Japan (BRAIN) — Shimano saw a 4 percent increase in net sales in its bicycle division last year, while operating income in the segment was nearly flat, down 0.8 percent, the company announced Tuesday.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (BRAIN) — BicycleBlueBook is giving its IBD customers access to marketing assets through Promoboxx, a web platform used by several major bike suppliers.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (BRAIN) — QBP is launching a new grant program that will support bike shop-led initiatives to support their communities.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (BRAIN) — Brendan Quirk, the co-founder of Competitive Cyclist and most recently the North American president of Rapha, is joining the Runway Group as cycling program manager.
SEATTLE (BRAIN) — Nuun said it has expanded its event support in 2018 and reckons it will hydrate over 2 million participants in 2018 on race and ride events, as well as in fitness studios and festivals in North American and globally..

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (BRAIN) – TerraTrike says it closed its fourth quarter of 2017 with 25 percent growth over the same period last year – the best in the company's 22-year history. The privately held company did not release specific revenue figures.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (BRAIN) — Three-time world champion Peter Sagan is working with Bike Monkey, the producer of Levi's GranFondo, to promote two new gran fondo events in California this year.
SAN DIMAS, Calif. (BRAIN) — Framebuilder Foes Racing has spun off a separate business offering lift kits and other components for Ford Transit vans.

BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — Retail sales at independent bike shops reached $3 billion last year, down 1 percent from $3.1 billion in 2016, according to the latest point-of-sale data from The NPD Group's U.S. Retail Tracking Service.

NEW YORK (BRAIN) — Vista Outdoor, owner of the Bell, Giro, Blackburn, CamelBak and Bollé brands, continues to see a sales decline in its core ammunition and firearms segments. The company reported Thursday that sales were down 11 percent in its third quarter, which ended Dec. 31.
SAN FRANCISCO (BRAIN) — Echos Communications will serve as the North American agency of record for Pirelli, the Italian tire brand.
LEXINGTON, S.C., & LEVIS, Quebec (BRAIN) — Hawley-Lambert launched an online dealer staff training platform for all its North America accounts. Called HLC University, the platform is hosted on both the Hawley and Lambert dealer websites.
BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — VeloNews is adding content from the cycling analysis and commentary website The Outer Line to the VeloNews.com website. VeloNews.com will publish new stories from The Outer Line as well as host its archives.
EUGENE, Ore. (BRAIN) — Rolf Prima Wheels has hired industry veteran Tom Kern as national sales manager, overseeing sales for Rolf Prima and its new rim brand launched this fall, Astral Cycling. Kern had recently been director of sales at Faraday Bicycles in San Francisco.