How the Coronavirus Lockdown is Affecting European MTB Brands
Orbea has brought in safeguarding policies that go above and beyond Spain's required levels for its warehouse staff.
Italy, France, Spain are currently on near-total lockdown. The only trips allowed are for food shopping or medical supplies leaving millions of people quarantined and waiting out the most disruptive pandemic since the Spanish flu.
Stock markets are crashing, those who go to work must wear masks and gloves and we’ve even read stories of cyclists in these countries threatened with fines of up to €3,000 and a year in jail for riding their bikes. In short, life has rapidly become very different for those in western Europe. We wanted to know how the lockdown is affecting the brands that operate out of these countries too so we spoke to Orbea (Spain), EXT (Italy), Met (Italy), Commencal (Andorra) and Formula (Italy) to gauge their current reaction to the situation and how it will affect their future. It’s worth noting that these questions were asked and answered on March 18/19 and can only provide a snapshot of a rapidly evolving situation.
Operations
Every brand we spoke to was still able to operate in some form under the lockdown. Max Commencal explained that production in Taiwan was working normally so most of his staff were able to work from home, while the logistics department has “set up processes which respect the recommendations of relevant health authorities.”
As many staff as possible have been asked to work at home for brands including Commencal
Extra precautions have been taken at brands such as EXT where staff are on-site and assembling parts. Franco Fratton, the Technical Director of the brand, explained that all workers must send a picture of themselves with a thermometer to prove they do not have a temperature before coming in to work. Another change is to have a dedicated courier drop off point in a quarantined area so that no unnecessary personal contact is created. Any deliveries that do arrive are then sprayed with a 70% alcohol antivirus solution before they are taken inside the factory. EXT have also divided the work day into 2, a morning shift and an afternoon shift, so fewer people are working together.
Orbea has also introduced new regulations that they have borrowed from their Asian suppliers that go above and beyond the protocols of the Spanish government. These include hiring busses to safely transport their staff to work, introducing the 1.5 metre distancing protocol before it was legally mandated in Spain and staggering break times so that there are never too many people in one space.
A seamless transition to full operation hasn’t been the case for all brands though. Hutchinson, who have a factory in Chalette-sur-Loing, France, have today closed for safety reasons until April 6 and will not be making deliveries until then. Met have also put their warehouse on hold "for safety reasons but also to follow the general lockdown of the shops". The other brands we spoke too also expressed that if the situation worsens that they may have to do the same too but for now they are trying to carry on as normally as possible.
The implications of the lockdown
In the short term, frustration seems to be the biggest issue for the brands. We’re only a few days into the lockdowns and in reality that’s not enough time for brands to feel any serious effects yet. Ander Olariaga, Marketing Manager at Orbea, said: “I think that the difficulties are similar for most of the brands; uncertainty generates stress, to stay at home with the kids is stress, not being able to ride a bike outside is stress.”
Orbea claim that its co-operative structure has helped it to safeguard its workers during the outbreak.
Forecasting ahead, however, paints a more gloomy outlook on the implications of the lockdown. Of course, there’s no telling how long the lockdowns will last, especially as both the Italian and French governments discussed extensions to theirs earlier today, but the longer they are, the greater tolls they will undoubtedly take on the brands affected.
 | It will change the industry for at least a couple of years |
Vittorio Platania, Marketing Manager at Formula, said: “We know there will be a beneficial effect due to these measures, but we still don't know when this will happen. We are all fighting against an enemy who does not allow us to take immediate and evident actions. Everything we do will have an effect in the next fifteen or twenty days... predicting the future is impossible at this stage. The containment, at the moment, is the only tool we all have to overcome this outbreak in the shortest time possible.
Max Commencal said of a longer lockdown: “In this case, it would, of course, be more dramatic. Not for us in particular but for the whole planet. We [Commencal] are not the most fragile but we should not exaggerate either.”
Ulysse Daessle, PR for Met and Bluegrass, added, “There will definitely be an impact on the revenue and the global activity of all the brands in the cycling industry… The intensity and the number of problems that will emerge from this situation depend also a lot on how long it will take to stop the outbreak.”
A few brands also mentioned the impact the shutdown was having on their athletes. With the race calendar up in the air and uncertainty rife throughout cycling, training plans will have to be thrown out the window and athletes may have to make the most of an indoor set up for now. Athletes are also tied into contracts that may require them to attend a certain number of events or races, this could mean difficulties down the line if a flurry of clashing events are packed together in autumn.
Olariaga said, “it will change the industry for at least a couple of years - races, shows, product launches, everything is postponed or cancelled and there is not time for everything to be organized again at the end of the year. We need all of them to survive but it won't be easy.”
| After the outbreak, I think it will be important to support your local dealers. They will need it as they will be impacted hard by this crisis |
These bikes will be staying hung up at Commencal's HQ as the brand is recommending against riding so hospitals aren't overwhelmed.
What's next?
The biggest immediate danger seems to be facing local bike shops who will lose at least 2 weeks of custom and are a vital link between some of the brands we spoke to and the public. Shops can also be a valuable resource to the local riders by providing advice, organising group rides and being a hub for the community.
Ulysse Daessle, PR for Met and Bluegrass, said, “After the outbreak, I think it will be important to support your local dealers. They will need it as they will be impacted hard by this crisis. And obviously to go riding and connecting with the brands you share values with.”
Orbea's Olariaga was also hoping for unity to help the recovery of the industry. He said, "if the industry is not united we all will suffer the consequences. We are a huge peloton that needs more than ever pedal together. We know that some people will lose their employment but we need people to continue normal habits. It's very important that once they are able to go outside, to support their local shops. The small shops will suffer a lot because they do not have the capacity or the right to keep the business open during the lockdown."
The clear message that came from all brands was to follow the guidance of the local health authorities and self-isolate to stem the spread of the virus. The sooner that the virus passes, the sooner things can return to normal and the disruption should be kept to a minimum. Commencal even echoed the Italian Cycling Federation in asking people not to ride. Max Commencal said: “we recommend not going out to ride. Now is not the time to clutter hospitals. Put your life on hold, stay at home and trust the people in charge. This is serious and it's not the time to play unruly for once. It’s simply the quickest way to get back to this 'normal' life that we love so much."
In an unprecedented period of history, the brands in the heart the European shutdowns seem to be managing so far however with uncertainty surrounding the next steps of the Coronavirus outbreak, the worst is likely still to come.
Author Info:
Said every Pro DH Rider When they had seen this Brooke MacDonald video.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUPqHzzzSak
Statements slightly amended:
- "So many people underestimating this still and the people who didn't take the early warnings seriously have made it so much worse."
- "We are looking at a worldwide pro men's DH emotional depression of unknown length in a decent case scenario."
- "Worst case scenario is the UCI collapses and all other pro DH competitor's contracts become worthless."
Lol no. The virus is a serious issue, but its mostly well under wraps. China has opened up travel. Once testing and vaccines become more available, this will be a non issue. The purpose of the quarantine (which is the primary thing that is affecting the economy) is to not overwhelm the medical systems.
Even in 2008, when actual value got destroyed in the form of massive mortgages on houses without peoples ability to pay those, the economy rebounded. In this recession, no real value is destroyed, the demand is artificially suppressed. Once quarantine is over, after the frictional period, the demand for goods and services is going to be back up after the frictional period, as people will settle into new jobs and money will start flowing.
If there is anything I learned from history of 3 recessions within my liftetime, is that every time something like this happens, most people don't understand basic economic principles, and there ones that are the loudest always try to appear more woke by crying about the end of times. So chill out and go for a bike ride.
I hope we can eventually rebound but we need an effective and lengthy quarantine if we don't want to overrun the entire health care system. If the rest of the world sees our entire health care system collapse into chaos it would likely affect confidence in the dollar. Real value will be lost on a massive level the stock market crash is devastating retirement savings and at least 25% of the population faces extended unemployment. I just don't understand how the government is going to create enough fake money to cover for all of this while still maintaining credibility while everything continues to collapse until the infection and death rates start to turn around. They aren't even close to slowing down, they are actually spiking. If death rates continue to spike for the next month I imagine a dow around 5 to 10 thousand at best.
Any previous recession experience goes out the window with this collapse unless you are old enough to tell me that you lived through the great depression on the 30's.
Who the hell said our economical growth is something normal and that's how it should be? The inequality is quite staggering. Nothing better than westeners whining on not being able to afford fricking toys. Sign of times: influencers crying in their VLOGs they have no more source of income! You are not supposed to have any source of income if your job is to talk nonsense and try to sell some stupid crap nobody needs!
This is what happens when crisis happens - leisure, culture, toys and hobbies die first. Just go to a grocery store, at least 30% of products there are utter shyte nobody should ever put into their mouth or use at home.
He just said yestarday there is 'zero prospect' on locking down London. My ass. At the same time riots happening in Peckham (south London).
They're just passing the responsability of closing down onto the busnisses, the more is closed down voluntarily before a lockdown, the less the goverment will have to spend in help.
In my company many people just quitted and went back to their countries cause many couldn't afford a month or two being here with just the statutory sick pay (or no pay at all)
Yeah the figures the press put out look all scary in their big red letters, but there are far worst virus out there doing the rounds that make covid look like a shaving cut.
If your panicking about this do your self a favour and never read the ONS website in the uk or the WHO website if your looking for international figures.
but for a quick snapshop.
in just the last week of january 700 people just in the uk needed intensive care treatment for the flu a decent chunk of those will have died, dont get the impression there is a vaccine for flu, there isn't. the flu jab is just a guess as to what strain they think may be doing the rounds that particular year. that figure was quite a big decrease from the preceding weeks too.
1200 ish people a day die in the uk approximately in winter time 40% of those deaths are caused by respiratory infections.
As panic spreads about worldwide covid deaths hitting 10,000 bare in mind measles, f*cking measles did 140,000. (thanks for that anti-vaxxers)
covid currently has some way to go to even catch up with rhinovirus or the common cold as its called.
does 144 in 3 months seem like Armageddon to you now?
There's shit loads of stuff out there just waiting to come out. Aside of other diseases transmitting form Animals to humans, which are hard to prevent due to low testing and hygiene standards, there's Enough psychos to see it as a great opportunity to spread other diseases on purpose. We need more testing of animals and more vaccines - this will take a decade... we don't stockpile anything since we are so used to getting everything on demand.
So when Healthcare tries to limit Corona, they cannot work on regular issues as effectively as they have done until now. Like a mangled MTBer. So now imagine yourself lying with broken pelvis and waiting for an operation for a week, when there's no pain killers. Pain being one thing, risk of getting infected with other stuff, like hospital pneumonia being another. You ride with a mild flu, crash, get some shit into your wound and your body is at higher risk of sepsis - you come to a hospital not sure why you feel like crap, they turn you around since they don't have resources to check you thoroughly, you go back home and you die of septic shock few hours later. It's an extreme example but if it gets as extreme as Italy or worse, you're f*cked. Accidents like Car crashes happen all the time and these people need intensive care. This indirect severe meidcal conditions and deaths are reality du eto Corona occupying big portion of Healthcare.
And what do we propose? Going to go out and do mass shootings in Elderly homes or clinics for diabetics?
Until we know how many people have been infected by Corona virus, it's impossible to make any meaningful comparisons regarding mortality rates. Hopefully far more people have had the virus without knowing it than current numbers suggest, meaning mortality rates are not as high as the experts currently fear.
its a cycle thats been going on for decades only now we live in an age where the media relies on clicks for their income, Get used to this kind of thing because the traditional and social media have seen how much money can be made through inducing panic in people that regard facebook as a scientific journal.
There are going to be an awful lot of these manufactured events in the future.
Is a proven fact that is easier to turn into pneumonia and other complications than common flu. Too many people with messed up lungs at the same time and hospitals collapse.
I'm a former radiographer in touch with radiographers working in both UK and Spain, my sister is a nurse, my best friend a doctor, I've seen TC scans of severe pneumonias.
Most PB audience has nothing to worry about, still, don't be the musicians in the Titanic, pls.
This is a quote from Minister for the Cabinet Michael Gove around Brexit;
"I think the people in this country have had enough of experts with organisations from acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong."
I wonder what his opinion of expert advice is now?
around 10,000 people a week in the uk get diagnosed with flu, of those around 700 a week need intensive care treatment, extrapolate that back to say a 4 month winter period and your sitting at in the region of 160,000 cases ,11,200 needing intensive care.
1200 people /day died in the uk last year, in winter time 40% of that figure is from respitory infections.
so lets be generous and say 400/day
so first reported case in the uk was 22 jan so 60 days say.
144 corona virus vs the underlying rate of 24,000 or an increase of 0.6%.
even the volume of cases doesn't hold water 3400 vs underlying rate 160,000 or 2% increase do you honestly believe that its going to cripple the health system?
the panic is going to to cripple it not the illness, take away the manufactured fear and its not even news worthy.
- You're introducing breathing problems to already critical people coming from surgeries and with other illnesses, meaning double trouble.
- Resources like O2 and ventilators are finite, not enough for evybody, again affected of C19 or any other condition, meaning your uncle coming from a bypass surgery will be f*cked too w/o a ventilator, even if he never gets C19.
-Staff and working hours are finite too and won't double as patients do, that means less care for everyone independently of why they're at the hospital.
-Urgent diagnosis and/or treatment for other illnesses is affected too, as waiting times increase.
with people that are ill enough for covid to seriously affect them, the likelihood of them ending up in hospital with pneumonia is incredibly high anyway.
If covid didn't get them something else would have.
If governments had said flu is running 1.5-2% higher mortality rates this year no one would give a shit.
give it a scary name and a load of clickbait headlines and the world economy is about to collapse.
So I completely agree, it's not COVID-19 that will kill their patients, it will be them being unable to access the resources to diagnose and treat their existing conditions, which aren't going to take a holiday because there is a new kid in town.
I'll still be turning up for work to fix the machines when they break, assuming they still have the kits and staff to run them.
I've been bringin up same argument no more than 3 weeks ago. Let's have some... understanding.
Why bother arguing with a reasoned, logical position to somebody who will just come back at you with utter shit?
Look, highly possibly, by pure rule of statistics, some pro rider will get injured. if they will be oblivious enough to rules of engagment in Social Media world... they will post a pic of themselves in the hospital. You know the usual dumb thumb up thing. They will be condescended into oblivion for "taking risks in those special hard times". And you know what? Half of those accusations will come from folks bitter from sitting at home. Not because the athlete did something fundamentally wrong. they were doing their god damn job!
Just watch...
The only reason for still holding onto this opinions that I can sympathies with is fear and a desire not to admit the truth about what is happening.
Science is not about being sure, it is about getting data, analyzing it and coming with conclusions, presenting them to others who can check them and compare with own research. You are not doing it. You are coming from position of being assured, you have an assumption and you are latching onto data that seems to support your idea. It slowly evolves.
Witch hunt is a natural thing humans do, just like panic, so control it! We are very close to witch hunt stage of this thing. It’s going to be one nasty throwing accusations among countries by which Trump vs Hillary was a walk in the park. Italy will have a damn hard time... while the reality they just had bad luck to be first. Same would happen in other individualistic societies.
Prepare your hearts for the Witch Hunt... we will not be the same after this is over, we will seek justice that isn’t there.
Its common sense.
Thing is you had a portion of the population trying to fake news and lie about it. You arent fake newsing this away.
Everyone do as much as you can to slow the spread.
That's it.
@bh45her - please watch this.
youtu.be/ycrqXJYf1SU
If it keeps happening I'm pretty f**ked.
There is a vaccine for the seasonal flu. Randomized controlled studies from the norwegian FHI (public health institute) show a roughly 60 percent immunization among the general population from this vaccine, and a roughly 88 percent amongst health workers. Often the vaccine protects a person for several years afterwords, as seasonal flu often resembles last years flu.
Covid-19 is more contagious and more deadly than a seasonal flu - and as severel others have tried to explain your dumb ass, this can potentially put extreme strains on the health care systems.
Source (Google translate this bitch if you want to and stfu) :
www.fhi.no/nettpub/vaksinasjonsveilederen-for-helsepersonell/kunnskapsgrunnlag/influensa
Bunch of fn wankers.
As for the virus, be vigilant, use basic common sense and keep living. I am more concerned with the behind the scenes economic collapse. This, to me is the real issue and the virus is a timely cover for the plug being pulled on trillions of debt and derivatives that can not be serviced. Act locally with your neighbors to get through this and keep peddling.
Really people with the x kills x amount of people why arent we worried about that?
Because we know what x is its accounted for and expected.
Get it?
I may have missed some info since it is extremely difficult to dig beyond the current load of info on Covid 19. Google is simply infected with it. Data about Other Corona viruses is buried deep under it
I am tired of this bullshit called “press immunity”. There are 3 of leading journos in Sweden who deserve to lose their job
One thing is sure, if we keep pretending we can save everybody, if we keep looking at it as if it was a superhero movie, where hero saves everyone- we will all lose, big time. I don’t know where the good balance is for which situation. Only history will tell. For that reason alone we need to kill the moral high horse. Every country, possibly every province/ state of it will have it differently. It is extremely dangerous to look for common truth and be judgmental.
At the least.
Both are selling nano silver covid medications. Modern snake oil essentially.
What do I think of those buying it and those who watch their shows..
The lockdown is the least of our worries. Lets hope we get through that with the least number of people dying. The subsequent global economic recession will knacker a lot of companies and change our lives forever.
Our greed has put us in a position where the economy is based upon a massive faslehood of promise and purchased risk. Maybe this event will level that out, and only true added value will power the economy...
Much of the economy is based upon the the rich getting richer. It's this intangible, non-material wealth that makes everything so volatile. I totally understand why it has become like this, but a version of capitalism where risk is only shared up one level would be a lot more stable, even if the growth wasn't as big. Maybe it's time to try this out as an alternative...
Imagine bike parts will go up 30% in price because we need ot move production back to Europe or US. Will it really make all the difference?! hell no! What we don't spend on hobby, many of us spend on all sorts of stupid stuff. When this is over, just look what people put into their shopping baskets... it's neough to give us a picture. Half of it is not: ooooh I want thiiiiis! It's "why not?". I guess it's not greed, it's lack of consideration. Hard to name these things
Only a fool will think this is not made up by said big players trying to increase their share, and get plenty support from the government. And this is not just for the bike industry
Seriously?! Why is this such a hard concept to grasp? One day sooner we all get on board with this is one day less we have to deal with it.
I ask because I'm in one of the California Bay Area counties where they've instituted "shelter in place" (I guess it's the whole state now). Despite this, authorities are encouraging outdoor recreation, provided you do it only with members of your household and maintain 2m distance from others.
If locked down, it’s all off.
The amount of a*sholes out in groups today though we need locking down :-(
Or boutiques going to offer free bat soup with each made in china product?
Why?
I went to a LBS to order a Commencal kids bike with the price of (I think) 380-390€ on Commencal web store.
LBS tried to sell me that bike for 500.
I will support them as soon as they start to support myself.
Nothing better in these times to whine on prices and tell people around you that you will not give them money cuz you can order it from a locked down country. Oh dear, a complete kids bike costs almost as much as RS Yari or a good wheelset - the world is ending! There's enough kids bikes on classifieds and I assure you this commencal bike is not worth the extra cash to get the luxury of buying a brand new item.
Get a fkng grip people... stop pretending this is not an elite hobby.
And putting on a front wheel on 12" balance bike is not a major service.
Also, when i bring my out of true front commuter wheel asking them to change my rim, I dont expect them to just order a new wheel (and front disc, for some reason) and charge over 600 chf (that's more or less the same amount in $).
In Basel we have 100 bike shops and most of them are run by ass&#$^
About re-lacing the my crappy commuter wheel.. it was another shop. I never asked them to relace my wheel for free. I didn't care about price anyway. I didn't pay for it. My insurance company did. But to charge 600$ for a front commuter wheel is just rude.