States where Performance Bicycle stores are located.All of Performance Bicycle's brick-and-mortar stores are expected to close over the course of the next few weeks, the result of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings involving Advanced Sports Enterprises (ASE). ASE was the owner of Performance and Bike Nashbar, and was also the parent company of Fuji, Kestrel, SE, Breezer Bikes and Tuesday Cycle. Performance was the largest bicycle retailer in the United States, with over 100 locations spread across the country.
According to Bicycle Retailer, the store closings were also accompanied by at least 95 layoffs at ASE's office in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. ASE's assets were purchased in early February by a group of four companies called the Tiger Group for a reported $23 million.
BikeCo, which is the name given to the company created by Adcanced Holdings Co, a private equity group from Hong Kong, and Tiger Capital Group, a high-profile business liquidator, are in the process of purchasing ASE's wholesale business, along with the Fuji, Kester, Breezer, and SE trademarks.
Amain.com Inc purchased the Performance and Nashbar trademarks and web domains for $1.245 million, and is planning to continue operating the online portion of those businesses.
K&B Investment Corporation, the fourth company in the Tiger Group, is a real estate investment firm that has ties to J&B Importers, the Miami-based bike and component distributor.
Must Read This Week
136 Comments
I find it funny that you make a point to call where the guy that replace you comes from being an immigrant yourself. If you don't like being replace by people from another country maybe you should go back to Chile bro!
In basic training the drill sergeants used to tell us that women often make better shooters. Why? Because all the men that came through ‘knew how to shoot.’ The women knew they didn’t and therefore took instruction. (Ft Jackson - POG, I know, I know...)
People that shopped here will most likely go to wally and target now
Really? The ones I have been in had some low end bikes, but also had $3000-$5000 bikes, Zipp wheels, other carbon wheels and high end parts.
I agree with you, Performance is a franchise, not a local bike shop. I shopped at Performance mostly for more down to earth prices on accessory type stuff like clothes, brake pads, tires, tools. A step up from Target or Walmart? You've never really been in a Performance store I'm guessing. They carried different brands like GT. They weren't partially owned by Specialized like Bike Source and I never experienced the arrogance that I've repeatedly experienced at Bike Source and some other "cool" shops. Paying ridiculously high prices just to be with in the "in" crowd has always baffled me. But you go ahead on brother. I got some great deals at Performance. Their demise will increase prices in the areas they had stores. Guaranteed. A $100 for a $10 shirt that has a trendy name on it isn't any better than a shirt made of the same material without that trendy name on it. I'm sorry to see Performance go. There's a big void in the market now where the 200% and more markup on bike stuff isn't going to fill.
i love you man
and what about chainlove? I know they are under a bigger umbrella but damn they had some sweet shit that kept me glued waiting for the next deal
Compton
I got turned on to Jenson when the Mavic shoes I bought at PricePoint took a shit and while PP wouldn't warranty 'em, Jenson DID
If you can't afford to buy things in an ethical manner, don't buy them. Nobody is forcing you to buy XT over SLX dude.
It's politics, it's everyone's business.
Too many people complain about things like the price of inner tubes in your LBS. When it's the only thing some people will buy from you, then you have to make your money where you can. Don't complain about the price of tubes when it's only convenient to buy them from your LBS but do all your other shopping online. (this isn't necessarily directed at cougar797, more at the industry/consumers as a whole). You are not entitled to cheap bikes and parts.
They were too big to adapt to the changing market. Too many stores to overhaul. Too much turnover with staff. Pen and paper work orders (no Ascend) and highly inefficient parts ordering processes. Service area at my local shop was a joke with barely enough tools to do even basic services. The service area didn't even have a cpu workstation at the service check in and the shop had to use paperback catalogs for Hawley and QBP. The point of sales system was antiquated to put it nicely. Management was awful and treated their staff terribly.
NO shocker here. I wish all the staff good fortune finding a new job. All the admin and management though can suck a bag-of-D's!
I never did have PB work on my bikes but I did buy a few completes for my kids & it was my goto for nutrition & parts.
It might of been different in other States, but our store had great staff & good prices, sad to see them go.
I know it sucks to hear when a shop full of cool people shuts down, things can be tough. But it's a sign of how great things have gotten for us riders. You can bleed Shimano brakes in 5 minutes, and have a new derailleur shipped to you overnight for like 60$. Bike repairs are getting simple, and that's awesome for us riders.
They did start to carry the Marin Hawk Hill at the end at the correct retail price but it was too late by then.
I did uae them for some spares and even bought my latest pair of shoes there, right before the bankruptcy announcement.
Pretty sad really, but it does illustrate that if a retailer cannot adapt to meet quickly changing trends then they are done for, especially when overhead is high (lots of locations= high operating costs.)
There is now a big hole in the entry level bike biz. Will be interesting to see who fills it.
For the rest of the shops I think there is going to be a big change in how they have to do business. I really value the LBS and hope they figure a way to make $$$.
My only hope is that this HELPS your local LBS because they will become a more focused and more necessary commodity. The entry/mid level stuff and maintenance can shift to them and the super cheapo folks can go shop at Target or buy online.
Even a 5-10% increase to your local LBS can help them stay in business and that's good.
setting foot in a PB bike store makes me depressed. why would i spend money there unless i absolutely have to?
Have learned how to do so much stuff from YouTube.
Not attacking you or your comment, just my two cents.
Post a Comment