Reindustrialize France… What if we started with the bicycle?

• Nearly 2.7 million units sold, a turnover exceeding 3 billion euros ... The bicycle market did not run out of steam last year in France, and should not do so in the next few months. ten years to come according to Jérôme Valentin, of Union Sport & Cycle.

• But the French industry is not taking full advantage of it, with an annual production of 660,000 bicycles when Portugal leaves 3 million, recalls the office of Prime Minister Jean Castex in the letter of assignment entrusted to Guillaume Gouffier-Cha.

• The LREM deputy for Val-de-Marne has until January to identify the prospects and the obstacles to the rise of the French bicycle industry.

  Who does not start from a blank sheet, but must still structure itself in a real sector. 

If there is one sector that is not experiencing the crisis, it is the bicycle sector.

For several years, annual sales have exceeded 2.6 million units.

And the turnover, it continues to climb, driven by the sale of electrically assisted bicycles (VAE), more expensive.

Result: more than 3 billion euros in turnover, in France last year, for the combined sales of bicycles, peripherals and accessories.

Just a start?

"We have before us a market that will last at least ten years," said Jérôme Valentin, vice-president of Union Sport & cycle, which brings together companies in the sector.

Not only in France but throughout Europe, where sales could approach 30 million units sold, according to projections.

That is an increase of 47% compared to the current level.

660,000 bikes produced in France

The whole question is whether this boom is fully benefiting French industry. The account is not there for Matignon, who has just entrusted to the deputy Guillaume Gouffier-Cha, deputy LREM of Val-de-Marne, a parliamentary mission in order to "develop a real bicycle industry in France". Because when nearly 2.7 million bicycles are sold each year in France, French production stands at 660,000 units. "Against almost 3 million in Portugal, while this country produced in 2010 the same volume of bicycles as France today", compares the cabinet of Jean Castex in the mission letter addressed to Guillaume Gouffier-Cha, who will have to hand over his report in January.

“The Portuguese have been very smart,” says Denis Briscadieu, founder of the “Velo Vallée”, a cluster launched in June 2018 at Isle Jourdain (Gers) with the aim of making Occitania a stronghold for cycling.

"By joining forces in the region of Aguada [south of Porto], by helping each other with the departure of Chinese" joint ventures "and European aid, by also taking advantage of social charges which are not ours, they have managed to produce components and assemble bicycles much more competitively than we do in Asia, ”he explains.

A card to play on the high end?

Can France catch up? For Guillaume Gouffier-Cha, the challenge is more to know how to ensure that the rise of the French cycling industry fits into this European framework. “The idea is not to duplicate our neighbors, but to work with them in good understanding,” he insists. The common interest is to depend less on Asia. »The issue is more topical than ever when certain essential parts, produced almost exclusively in Asian factories, are no longer in sufficient quantity to meet global demand. To the point of causing a shortage of bicycles in our stores that are well on the way to last.

French industry would then have a card to play by specializing in higher-end production. In any case, this is the track evoked by Jérôme Valentin, Denis Briscardieu and Guillaume Gouffier-Cha. "This is already how we stand out," said the deputy, taking the example of Mustache Bike, the high-end VAE brand that the Cycle Me company has been assembling since 2011 in the Vosges, where it was born. . Production rose to 1,500 units in 2011 to 65,000 hoped for in 2021. “Proof that we can launch a bicycle company in France and become a strong international reference in ten years”, slips Guillaume Gouffier-Cha.

Cycleurope Industries in Romilly-sur-Seine (Aube), Arcade in La Roche-sur-Yon (Vendée), the Manufacture française du cycle in Machecoul (Loire-Atlantique)… Jérôme Valentin counts between ten and fifteen significant players in the assembly cycling in France.

"We must add companies specializing in the manufacture of components, such as Mach1, one of the world leaders in rims and spokes, which has kept part of its production in the Loire", he adds Or Mavic, the brand of bicycle wheels, which has just been bought in summer 2020 by Bourrelier Group, a holding company founded by the former owner of the Bricorama chain.

"Find synergies at the national level"

To complete the picture, we should mention the multitude of companies with more artisanal production. At Union sport & cycles, there are about forty of them just for making frames. Denis Briscadieu's “Vallée Vélo” also brings together a few, such as the manufacturers of VUF (utility bikes), Pichinov, Thirty Ones, but also Ideale, which makes leather bicycle saddles. "One of the objectives of the cluster is to help the development of its member companies, make them think together, share if necessary square meters, staff ...", explains Denis Briscadieu. A similar cluster, called MAD (for Sustainable Active Mobilities), has also emerged in Villeurbanne (Rhône), with the aim, again, of federating regional players.

Jérôme Valentin welcomes these initiatives.

“We must ensure that they go in the same direction and that real synergies are created at the national level,” he insists, recalling that this is the time to do so.

Because there is this strong demand for bicycles and this shortage of components… “But also because there are today in France industries in loss of speed or in search of technological transition and which could find relays of growth in the bicycle, ”he adds.

This is the case for the automotive and aviation sectors.

Some players have already taken the plunge, like Valeo, a French automotive supplier, which now also makes complete motorization kits for electric bikes, as the German Bosch has been doing since 2011.

A missed opportunity with France 2030?

According to Jérôme Valentin, the State has a role to play in supporting the growing power of the sector. At the end of September, in

, he pleaded for a plan of one billion euros to support the bicycle manufacturers. “But the stake is not only financial, he specifies. We could also imagine a sector contract on the bicycle, as there are already 19 at the National Council of Industry. It would be very important to have this guarantee from the State. "

From this perspective, the “France 2030” investment plan, presented on October 12 by Emmanuel Macron, looks like a miss. The bicycle does not appear in the ten sectors and technologies listed by the president and in which he intends to invest 30 million euros over five years to "prepare the France of tomorrow". "There would have been its place," said Guillaume Gouffier-Cha. Who sees this absence as one of the shortcomings of the French cycling sector: "that of being certainly made up of a large number of players, but too scattered, to the point of having the impression that the sector is anecdotal or even there is not, he observes. However, it is once organized in a strong sector that we can maintain a permanent exchange with the State, both on its needs and on the prospects offered to the country. "

For cycling, these are not negligible.

A study by Ademe, from April 2020, estimated at 78,000 jobs the number of direct jobs already represented by the sector [in the broad sense, from manufacturing to tourism via repair].

And in 2030, the potential deposit is estimated at between 150,000 and 300,000 jobs.

Economy

How long will the shortage of bicycles last in France?

(A hint: be patient)

Paris

Plumber, cabinetmaker, bookseller… Bicycle craftsmanship about to change gear in Paris?

The return of the Mercier cycles, the missed opportunity?

On paper, the project ticked all the boxes. In Revin, in the Ardennes, on a derelict industrial wasteland since the 2000s, businessman Jean-Marc Seghezzi wanted to relocate the production of Mercier cycles, a century-old Saint-Etienne brand known for having equipped Raymond Poulidor and Louison in particular. Bobet on the roads of the Tour de France. At the start of 2021, the project was greeted with enthusiasm by local elected officials, especially since this project gave hope for more than 250 jobs and a production in the long term of 500,000 bicycles per year. A boon for this economically troubled territory.

The government is also initially providing support for the project, particularly financial, to the tune of 5.8 million euros. But on July 29, a dramatic turn of events: the state announced it was withdrawing from the project, suspecting Jean-Marc Seghezzi of tax and customs irregularities. "The state services have identified facts serious enough to consider responsibility that it is not possible to commit public money", detailed the prefect of the Ardennes, Jean-Sébastien Lamontagne, to AFP .

"A shock for the region especially since the government's reasons have long remained unclear", deplores Maxime Grulet, member of the local section of the Communist Party and of the delegation received in the office of Jacqueline Gourault, Minister of Territorial Cohesion, last October 1st.

Because all is not lost for Revin.

“The funds promised to clean up the wasteland remain maintained, which then leaves the door open to a new industrial project,” he explains.

And why not again in cycling, a sector that is indeed buoyant.

“For his part, Jean-Marc Seghezzi is looking for a new base for the Mercier cycles.

In France or at least in Europe,

on September 3.

• Mobility

• Bike

• Industry

• Relocation

• Planet