On the back of the very successful anniversary year of 2019, myStromer AG again enjoyed clear business growth in 2020. It saw revenue increase year on year. In personnel terms, too, the market leader in the niche market of fast e-bikes is investing in the future. The purpose of its recruitment drive was to increase capacity, particularly in quality management, quality control and customer service. On the product side, Stromer can look forward to the market launch of the new ST5, the first Speed Pedelec with fully integrated ABS.
Stromer was especially successful in the Netherlands, where it increased its market share for fast e-bikes of up to 45 km/h for the second year in a row. Specifically, it grew by 19 percent to extend its market lead to a 39.3 percent market share. In absolute figures, 1,850 Stromer S-Pedelecs were registered there. In Belgium, the market share reached 32.3 percent, with 4,061 registered Stromer bikes. Looking at the picture worldwide, myStromer AG is the market leader for Speed Pedelecs in the United States, Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands. Nor is Stromer a stranger to success in its home market Switzerland, where growth reached 20 percent last year. “The bicycle industry has just celebrated its second successive record year,” commented Jakob Luksch, CEO of myStromer AG. And the coronavirus pandemic has given the mobility transformation further momentum. “People are rediscovering the bicycle both for leisure and for commuting,” continued Luksch.
The business figures are one measure of success – but not the only one. The other highlights of the past year mentioned by Jakob Luksch include “the many awards we received for our bikes, and the steady evolution of the company.” The start of the ERP project in April 2020 and the expansion of the team by almost one-third “helped us lay the foundations for our growth plans for the coming years,” explained the CEO. In addition, 2020 was the first year in the history of myStromer AG where the entire annual production (12,417 bikes) came from the three assembly lines at the Stromer Campus in Oberwangen.
Stromer customers appear to have been just as active as the company itself. Just the bikes equipped with OMNI interface have covered more than 200 million kilometers to date. According to an evaluation of the OMNI data: In 2020 alone, 55,192 Stromer riders with an OMNI bike rode 69,010,676 kilometers – that is equivalent to more than 1,700 times round the world. There are currently 87,909 Stromer bikes in circulation. Another impressive statistic: The Stromer Community averages 25 kilometers each a day on weekdays – with the Belgians leading the daily stakes with 33 kilometers.
Forecast 2021
The opening of the Stromer Europe B.V. subsidiary in Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, means this new EU service center increases Stromer’s delivery capacity. It went into operation on February 1, 2021. Kobe Broos, previously Market Manager Stromer BeNeLux, will take over as the new General Manager of myStromer Europe. In an initial step, accessories and spare parts for European customers will be supplied directly from Treurenburg. In a later phase it will see the start of bike deliveries and the expansion of the showroom for dealer consultations and training.
A big feature of the year 2021 at Stromer will be a quality drive. “The transformation from having bikes built under contract to running our own assembly operations calls for supply chain management, assembly and quality management – the classic functions of a manufacturing company. We’ve specifically stepped up our capacity to handle such tasks and the quality with which we do,” added CEO Jakob Luksch.
In addition, April will see the launch of a new ERP system and a B2B shop. These investments will mean myStromer AG is able to move forward with optimism and from a position of strength. “We expect further moderate growth in 2021. There is the prospect that liberalization of S-Pedelecs in populous countries such as Germany and France will produce strong growth,” CEO Jakob Luksch is convinced.
On the product side, too, Stromer has new things in the pipeline for 2021: The new ST2 that will be available from dealers from February is the first Stromer S-Pedelec with carbon belt drive. And from June, a technical highlight will become available with the latest generation of the ST5: Stromer’s flagship model is the first Speed Pedelec with fully integrated ABS. This model has just made it to the final of the iF DESIGN AWARD 2021, having stood up to close scrutiny in one of the world’s top design competitions.
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