Bicycle Sales in the Netherlands grows 5.2% in first quarter of 2024

After a difficult 2023, turnover at bicycle shops increased in the first quarter of this year. Het Financieele Dagblad (FD) reports this based on the H&L Benchmark.

H&L said in a statement: The Dutch bicycle industry has made a good start to the year. H&L Accountants and Tax Advisors has many bicycle retailers as customers and noted that turnover increased by an average of 5.2% compared to the first three months of 2023. In March in particular, turnover was more than 9% higher than in March 2023. This year was record warm and dry, while March 2023 was very wet and gloomy. The first quarter is not necessarily decisive for the whole year. The second and third quarters are the most important quarters for the bicycle industry, when consumers will look for a new bicycle to use in the spring and summer.

Dirk Mulder, retail analyst at ING Bank, said that the retail industry is recovering overall, mainly due to slightly optimistic consumer confidence and improved disposable income. Mulder also mentioned the increasing number of visitors to the Far East Bicycle Exhibition. This is usually a good indication of the mood in the industry. In addition, Asian producers are once again cautious about accepting more orders.

BOVAG said earlier this year that according to GfK, turnover will fall by 3.9% in 2023. This decline is attributed to high inflation. The drop in demand comes at a time when bike sellers have accumulated a lot of inventory. Manufacturers' orders are based on high sales figures for 2021 and 2022, FD said, but H&L did not tell the specifics of the inventory levels this spring. The accounting firm hopes to analyze this in the half-year data.

At the moment, you hear that the market seems to have bottomed out, but in fact inventories are still high. Despite the fact that there are still a lot of bicycle stocks everywhere, the performance of bike retailers improved in the first quarter of 2024. The average performance of the benchmark as a percentage of turnover rose from 12.7% in 2023 to 13.8% (excluding entrepreneur remuneration). H&L said that the inventory problem will continue into the third quarter. It remains to be seen how much many companies will be able to reduce their inventory decisions in the coming months.