European bike sales… up!
No, really, there’s an improvement for the first time in years
SALES figures from around Europe are showing that for the first time in years there’s a significant upturn in the number of bikes being sold.
Bike sales started dropping off in Europe as the financial downturn hit back in 2007 and 2008, and they’ve kept heading downwards every year since. But the figures just released for January and February show that there’s a significant improvement for those two months compared to the same period in 2013.
Overall, sales of bikes and mopeds increased 8.6%, with Germany leading the charge on a massive 24.1% increase. The UK’s 4.2% improvement was a fair bit behind that, but still heading in the right direction. Strip some weak moped sales away, and the picture is rosier still, with an overall 14.8% improvement, headed again by Germany on a massive 47.8% upturn (UK: 6.6%).
Improvements in the economies around Europe are surely at least partially responsible for the increased sales, although it’s worth bearing in mind that this winter has been far less severe than that of 2012/13, which is also likely to have given bike sales a boost.
