Uphill road for the Italian bicycle. Sales down, e-bikes falling

"2025," explains Ancma president Mariano Roman, "has been a difficult year, probably one of the most complex in recent times for the domestic bicycle market. An in-depth reading of the data rings alarm bells. The sales data in particular should be interpreted with care, because behind a relatively moderate overall decline lie major sufferings, especially in the specialised channel, which continues to represent the heart of our sector.

At the same time, the production, export and trade balance figures confirm the quality, resilience and industrial capacity of the Italian supply chain, which remains anexcellence on the international scene. Particular attention deserves the e-bike segment, which is suffering not only from the slowdown in demand, but also from the distortions generated by the increasing diffusion of vehicles improperly marketed as e-bikes. We call for regulatory clarity on this phenomenon and for the continuation of all law enforcement activities to protect businesses that operate correctly, consumer safety, and fair competition'.

If in production terms it is unthinkable to reach the glories of the past (5.8 million bikes produced in 1994), the gap to the recent records of 2021 (2022 for e-bikes) is also evident, with a gap of over a million units for traditional bikes, 100,000 for electric bikes. The picture for individual companies is mixed, with different results also in relation to sales channel. "In large-scale retail, volumes are holding up,' explains Giuseppe Beraudo, founder of Denver, 'and we are growing in 2025. Even if revenues and volumes are now half of our highs'. 'Large-scale retail is doing well,' adds Masciaghi's ad Paolo Baretta, 'and so we were able to recover from the slump of 2024, when we lost 40 per cent of volumes. In specialised retail, however, the situation is the opposite and the channel is suffering."

"With the spread of the online channel and single consignments," adds Panzeri of Atala, "the possibilities of customs control are reduced, with the result of seeing an increasing number of products on the market that are outside the rules. "On the part of the companies, there is a continuous race for discounts to try to obtain liquidity," Turato of Bottecchia explains further, "and in these conditions prices and margins do not recover.