As ISH writes in a press release today, it is acquiring a majority stake in Bergamont Vertrieb GmbH. In return, it is buying shares in the company, which was previously family-owned. Company founder Hanspeter Berkes is retiring completely from the business due to his age. His son Stefan Berkes will remain with Bergamont as a partner and will continue in the role of Managing Director. The two parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price or the shareholding. The German industry portal velobiz.de writes that ISH has taken over 70 percent of Bergamont, citing insider sources. Due to the size of the company, ISH is likely to have paid several million euros for this. The money comes from the well-known entrepreneur Andy Rihs, who is the sole owner of ISH and its wholly-owned subsidiary BMC.

According to the press release, both ISH and Bergamot are looking forward to working together in the future. The two companies complement each other perfectly in terms of product range and market presence. It is hoped that the collaboration will enable synergies to be exploited in sales and bicycle production. When asked by Ride, ISH Managing Director Andreas Georgiadis announced that the company plans to bring Bergamont's Swiss sales department in-house from the 2010 season and integrate it into BMC's existing sales structure. In Germany, on the other hand, BMC distribution will be handled by the current distribution partner Grofa until further notice.

Bergamont was founded 15 years ago and has developed into an important brand in Germany in this relatively short time. Bergamont sells around 110,000 bikes a year, many of them in the affordable everyday and trekking bike segment. In the mountain bike segment, Bergamont set the tone with its attractively priced dirt bikes and freeriders. In terms of unit sales, ISH is a David in comparison, with around 23,000 BMC bikes sold this year. According to Georgiadis, however, both companies achieved roughly the same turnover.