[Closed] Specialized and Covid19

Be interesting to know how sales figures have been affected.

Anecdotally it seems to have been perfect conditions for selling bikes, after a quiet couple of weeks I've pretty much cleared my shed of N+1 bikes to free up some cash! all sold for what I was asking for them.

People are bored at home, the sun is out, and they're riding bikes more, and therefore buying more.

Whether that includes £3k carbon bikes I dunno. Maybe they should focus a bit more on VFM, there's not been a replacement for the Pitch*, Camber**, Status. Their niche for years was that they had the buying power to out-spec the small brands, now they're being out spec'd by the small brands so it's not really surprising if their sales are down. The LBS showroom argument never really held much water, how many LBS's could actually give you a demo beyond the car park, let alone on the size/model you wanted. If you were lucky you might find a demo day, but smaller brands often seem to do those better too, I remember Orange turning up 9not out of the blue, it was planned!) to our clubs night ride with a van full of bikes because someone asked for a demo!

*the original cheap Enduro, not the hardtail
**the original cheap stumpjumper, not the 120mm replacement for the stumpjumper

I think the big money makers aren’t selling. The cheap bikes are. There has been a massive rise in new cheap bikes as everyone is bored at home.
Why buy a £5k+ superbike you can’t use to its full.
When the lockdown ends world wide sales will improve but the recession that will follow will mean a lot of people wont have the disposable income to splash out on a gucci bike.

I've had a few Specialized bikes over the years,but I never pay full price for them.
I think the spec is not good value for the money,IMHO you get more value buying Giant or one of the on line brands.

Nationwide, Trek have mostly sold out of their <£700 bikes. A friend I'm the industry reckons the shop he works at has beaten all previous records (inc Christmas, Black Friday etc) in terms of sales.

And to be fair, that's always been far and away the biggest sales bracket, that sort of £600 - £1000. Sales above that (not inc e-bikes) aren't actually that common - certainly not compared to the lower end stuff.

One of my LBS's is a Spech dealer.
Spoke to one of the guys there yesterday and he recons it's gone mental with new bike sales.
The shop is closed to the public but they're doing contact free sales with people picking up bikes from the carpark.
Recons they're struggling to keep up with the amount of sales.

Must confess that for the last ~6 months or so, the spec and cost of models such as the Specialized Allez range were looking increasingly better value for money compared to the previous ~10 years.

Sinyard said in an interview. Specialized receives a significant amount of its revenue from European sales.

The layoffs were primarily in customer service, purchasing, logistics, marketing and several in product management. All those let go received a "generous" severance and will retain their health benefits, Sinyard said.

I imagine Specialized is just one of many companies re-evaluating their current position.

Sinyard was clear that the COVID-19 crisis has forced the company to reexamine its priorities and its goals."Specialized is now 46 years old and we've grown a lot. Regrettably, some of the people we had, who've done a fine job for us, we don't need; we have to make room for new people. I know that sounds harsh, but that's the way it is," he said.

Does read like Covid-19 was an excuse to get rid of them.

Sinyard warned dealers that future changes could be disruptive. "We'll have to be more flexible in the work we do and challenge the way we have always done things," he said.

My thoughts, maybe they are looking at making one central European hub?

My thoughts, maybe they are looking at making one central European hub?

Or moving to something more like online sales? Don't Trek now sell their higher end stuff online and ship it to LBS's to do the PDI and act as a point of contact for warranties rather than relying on dealers to try and guess which £5k carbon FS they'll sell 3 of this year and order in advance?

Must confess that for the last ~6 months or so, the spec and cost of models such as the Specialized Allez range were looking increasingly better value for money compared to the previous ~10 years.

It's £1900 for an Allez sprint with most of a 105 groupset. I know it's a nice frame, but it still feels like a lot compared to say a Canyon where you get a full 105 groupset and carbon frame for £400 less.

We’ll have to be more flexible in the work we do and challenge the way we have always done things

I'm assuming he realises that the LBS will be doing the exact same thing and they'll not be able to enforce their terms quite as easily as before...I suspect a lot of the LBSs will be willing to end the dealership and go with someone else if they start trying to mess about with the way it works.

I’d take the Spec over the Canyon any day at the same price though.... I actually like their marketing with Loic / fast life etc.

Industry needs to get much better at demo days like in US. No excuse for only getting to ride a 5k bike round the car park for a demo - they should be embarrassed.

It’s £1900 for an Allez sprint with most of a 105 groupset. I know it’s a nice frame, but it still feels like a lot compared to say a Canyon where you get a full 105 groupset and carbon frame for £400 less.

While I admit there are often better-specced bikes out there sometimes you have to look beyond the spec of the bike and go for something that feels right. That's me with Specialized I just find the frames fit just right.

Let's also.not forget that although UK market is doing well

I can't imagine Spain and France and other european nation markets are doing quite so well.

Spesh has been struggling in the MTB world for a while haven’t they? Not fancy enough to compete with Santa Cruz, Evil, Devinci etc, but they’re not meaningfully cheaper.

Former boutique brands like Intense and Mainstream brands like Commencal have ‘gone direct’ to complete with YT and have (arguably) a better brand at the moment and can under cut them.

They tried the whole concept store thing but what’s the point if you’re still going to use dealers?

I suspect they’ll use lock-down as an excuse to ‘go direct’.