BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
[Uploaded to BikeBiz.co.uk on 11th October]
A takeover by Shimano is out of question, Frank Peiffer, Shimano Europas marketing manager told BikeBiz.
Ten years ago, Shimano were interested, but thats before they developed their own hub gear range, the Nexus family.
Peiffer lists three reasons why Shimano can today be ruled out of any takeover bid:
ONE
Our own technology for internal hub gears developed a lot and our production facilities were developed accordingly, so the thing needed would be a kind of complete turnaround and restructuring.
[If Shimano bought Sturmey Archer] maybe there would not even be any use for the current machinery or patents they have.
TWO
Distribution-wise the location in the UK is not really what I would call
a preferable choice for the consuming countries of internal hubgears.
THREE
The missing linkage of the pound to the Euro is making the product
expensive to the consuming countries.
Peiffer says Shimano is not gloating over the demise of Sturmey Archer:
It’s a big pity what’s happening there. Competition in the field of internal hub gears could have helped a lot to develop the market in the coming years.
____________
[Uploaded to BikeBiz.co.uk on 14th October]
After promising he would take a personal interest in the Derby/Lenark deal to sell Sturmey Archer for £30 Trade Secretary Stephen Byers has kept to his word. The investigations branch of the Department of Trade and Industry will be evaluating the case.
10 days ago BikeBiz sent the investigating officer a list of our website stories so he could get up to speed on the main issues involved.
News of the DTI investigation was contained in a letter from Byers to Simpson.
Byers wrote: "I am concerned to hear about the apparent failure of Sturmey Archer and the consequential loss of 300 jobs, especially in the light of disquiet expressed to me by yourself and others concerning the recent sale of the business.
However, there is no guarantee a full investigation will take place. It is up to the DTIs investigations branch to decide whether there is a case to answer.
Insolvency practitioner Tony Murphy, who is the joint liquidator of Sturmey Archer (along with KPMG), will be pressing for a full investigation.
