Romanian bicycle producer Atelierele Pegas has recently launched a new collection of bikes, following an investment of EUR 3 million. The collection comprises 13 new models, according to company founder Andrei Botescu.

“We’ve sold 4,000 bikes since 2014, but through this new collection we aim to sell 10,000 units this year and, further on, more than 25,000 bikes from the new collection,” Botescu said, cited by local Agerpres.

In the next three years, Atelierele Pegas wants to increase the volume of bikes ten times, to up to 25,000 units annually and reach a turnover of EUR 5 million.

The company’s marketing strategy is based on the ideas of nostalgia and childhood, as most of the Romanian adults had or wanted a Pegas bike when they were kids. Pegas used to be a very popular bicycle brand in Romania during the communist period. Andrei Botescu founded Atelierele Pegas in 2012 and has brought the brand back to life.

“Exploiting the psychological side of childhood memory nostalgia works even better than a marketing campaign,” Botescu said.

However, things will change in the future as the team will focus more on developing the smart biking segment. The company currently has two smart bike projects, but has even bigger plans for the future, as it plans to print 3D bikes and enter the virtual reality segment.

According to Botescu, the Romanian bike market is growing by 20-30% annually and reached a level of 350,000-400,000 units sold per year. However, the lack of infrastructure keeps Romania way behind other countries.

Local investor Iulian Stanciu, the CEO of the largest Romanian online retailer eMag, has acquired Pegas last year, through his electronics distribution company Network One Distribution (NOD).

Romania, among the biggest bicycle producers in the EU

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com