Retail sales of bicycles, components and accessories grew in France by 6.5 percent in value in 2011 to an estimated €1,350 million and by 5.5 percent in volume to 3.2 million bikes. It was the first year of growth since 2007. France is the third-largest market in Europe for bicycles after Germany and the U.K., where bike sales have been growing as well lately.
In contrast with Germany, electric bikes were not the engine of the French market last year, partly due to a concerted pull-out of the major hypermarket and supermarket chains from this segment. Pure sports bicycles represented only 12 percent of the market, but their share was 1 percentage point higher than the previous year as sales of road bicycles grew by 5.5 percent and those of high-end mountain bikes by 16 percent. Sales of folding bicycles doubled. Urban mobility bicycles lost 1 percentage point, declining to 26 percent of the French market. Leisure products dominated the market with a share of 62 percent.
Décathlon and other multi-sport retailers held a stable share of 52 percent of the market in terms of volume, but their sales grew by 8.5 percent in value to 39 percent of the total market. With a 4 percent increase in their sales, specialist retailers remained the leaders in terms of value, with a 51 percent share. Supermarkets and hypermarkets saw their share of the market in volume decline slightly to 25 percent.
