NPM Capital portfolio company International Bike Group had a great year in 2016. The parent company of, among others, online platform Fietsenwinkel.nl saw its sales increase by 65% last year to over €40 million. In that same period the company also opened seven brick-and-mortar stores in the Netherlands and added 100 independent bike outlets to its maintenance and repair network, now over 200 strong.
IBG expects to double its sales in 2017. By the end of April this year, the company will be opening 30 new brick-and-mortar stores in the Netherlands and elsewhere. ‘We have the biggest selection of bicycles and accessories,’ says Bastiaan Hagenouw, CEO of IBG. ‘We represent virtually every name brand and guarantee that we will always have the lowest price. To be able to keep up with the growth we aspire to, we are working very hard to fill over 200 new positions, from marketing data analysts to product category managers and from IT specialists to service technicians.’
Big investments in brick-and-mortar stores
This year, IBG is going big on brick-and-mortar stores: Within two months, Fietsenwinkel.nl will have at least 30 stores operational in the Netherlands. IBG says that “four out of five Dutch consumers” still want to see, feel and touch a bike before they make their purchase decision. ‘We definitely see online and physical stores as complementary. Many customers start their customer journey on our website, and in the end come into a store to make the purchase.’
IBG’s robust growth is an impressive performance in the saturated Dutch bicycle market. What’s their secret? Read the interview with CEO Bastiaan Hagenouw in Capital Magazine #07.
