700,000 bicycles per year - how Scott from Fribourg is conquering the world market

Scott Headquarters, Fribourg-Givisiez

The limelight is not Beat Zaugg's thing. The Scott boss rarely appears in the media, preferring to pull the strings in the background, but he does it properly. With and thanks to him, the company from Fribourg has become one of the largest and most important bicycle manufacturers in the world over the last twenty years, with an output of 700'000 bikes per year.

The current print edition of Ride includes a major interview with Zaugg. He comments on how and where Scott will develop. "The overarching themes for the next few years are sustainability and mobility," he says, looking to the future. Concentrating on mountain bikes and racing bikes will not be enough to keep up with the big bike manufacturers in the long term. At the same time, Zaugg provides a glimpse into the dimensions of the Fribourg-based bike manufacturer in the interview. Scott currently produces around 700,000 bikes per year, including sub-brands such as Bergamont and Avanti. The Group thus achieves an annual turnover in the region of 600 million Swiss francs. Scott's total turnover, in turn, is 700 million Swiss francs per year.

Though this puts Scott in the league of the most important players in the bicycle industry, other manufacturers still set the tone at the very top. Today, there are around 2000 bicycle brands worldwide, with the two largest manufacturers in the world being Giant from Taiwan and Trek from the USA. Estimates of the total volume of the global bicycle market vary and are currently put at between 30 and 60 billion US dollars in annual sales. In Europe, the market size amounts to around 20 million bicycles sold per year. In Germany, the figure is 4 million, which corresponds to a total volume of over 3 billion euros. In contrast, the Swiss market is almost marginal with 345,000 bicycles sold annually.In the interview in Ride, Zaugg not only provides interesting insights into the business figures, but also into his personal motivations. With the sale of the majority shareholding to the Korean company Youngone, he would not have needed to work for the rest of his life. But that is not Zaugg's style. He preferred to invest the funds he had freed up in the outdoor retailer Transa or the furniture manufacturer Alias. The interview with Zaugg in the current issue of Ride provides an extraordinary insight into the company and a picture of the person who has shaped the bike manufacturer over the last twenty years and developed it to its current dimensions.