Lucien, the bicycle shop chain under the wings of Belgian’s most significant car importer D’Ieteren, is expanding from ten to fourteen shops in Brussels and Antwerp with the recent acquisition of Alpha Bikes (Lasne, Uccle, Woluwe Saint Lambert, and Cyclo Europe (Evere).

The rapid scale-up and concentration of car dealerships in Belgium are also seen in the bicycle business, where the more prominent players like Lucien, Raida, or Bike Republic (Colruyt) are consolidating and expanding their market share. After seeing an incredibly booming business during the corona crisis, bike shops face a temporary dip with overstocks in some categories, like city e-bikes.

Thriving commuter business

Still, most of the profits in the booming bike business come from expensive electric bikes or speed pedelecs, which employers often subsidize for commuting to work. By May 1st at the latest, all workers in the private sector will be entitled to a bicycle allowance.

Alpha Bikes, founded by the brothers Romão in 2019, aimed at this business with bicycle shops offering renominated brands like Cannondale, Granville, and Bergamont. According to former owner Carlos Romão, the brother’s initial dream was to expand their three Brussels-area-based shops further in Belgium. “This will now be realized together with Lucien,” he adds.

Nicole Morel, shop manager and former owner of Cyclo Europe in Evere, a bicycle shop specialized in race bikes that focussed more on electric city bikes and (premium) speed pedelecs like Swiss Stromer, admits that the big players have the better trump cards to “steer mobility better and to support the consumer”. So she and Frank Rombaut, who started the shop in 1991, switch over to Lucien.

World’s largest bicycle manufacturer

As its leading supplier, Lucien works with Dutch Pon.Bikes, which is today the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer with brands like Gazelle, Cervélo, and Cannondale. Brands that are not unfamiliar to former Alpha Bikes either. Pon Holding is D’Ieteren’s peer in the Netherlands, importing all the Volkswagen brands.

Pon was created in 1895 in Amersfoort (the Netherlands) by Mijndert Pon, a bicycle repairman and sewing machine seller. Later, in the thirties, Pon’s sons Ben and Wiijnand started a car business, importing brands like Volkswagen, Porsche, Seat, and Skoda and becoming – like D’Ieteren with the same brands in Belgium – a major player in the car importing business.

With the acquisition of Waterloo-based ReCycle in October 2022, D’Ieteren started focusing on the fast-growing used-bike market too. The acquisition of ReCycle is only part of its second-hand ambitions, said Lucien’s director Karl Lechat in the newspaper De Tijd. Lechat expects the other Lucien shops also to sell second-hand bikes in time.