Since 1970, the Matterhorn has graced every Toblerone package. In 2023, the iconic mountain had to be removed: Toblerone relocated part of its production to Bratislava, and Switzerland’s “Swissness” law prohibits the use of the Matterhorn on packaging once the chocolate is no longer manufactured in Switzerland. The Matterhorn became an anonymous, stylized mountain, and “of Switzerland” became “Established in Switzerland 1908.” There is no such law for bicycle brands.  

The safe manufacturer that bought nearly ten mountain bike brands

On July 8, 2026, the German Federal Cartel Office gave the green light for the takeover: The Dutch Accell Group was to be sold to Dutech of Singapore, and ten bicycle brands would have changed hands, including Haibike, Ghost, and Winora. The deal was never finalized. On August 5, 2026, the Dutch Accell companies instead received a provisional stay of payment—the first step in insolvency proceedings. What the prospective buyer actually manufactures has nothing to do with bicycles at first glance: To this day, Dutech manufactures safes, ATM safes, and bank vaults, all certified to strict international standards. Engineer Johnny Liu founded the company in 2000 in Nantong, China. Why would a safe manufacturer suddenly take an interest in bicycle brands?

Dutech buys companies that are bankrupt but still have a good reputation. At Accell, customers remained loyal to the brands, but the group ran out of money. That’s what Dutech is looking for: a name whose reputation others have built up over a long period of time, with years of reliability, with warranties, and with bikes that delivered on their promises. The new owner would have acquired this reputation as part of the purchase, without having earned it themselves.

This strategy is neither new nor limited to Dutech. The U.S. company Authentic Brands Group does the same thing with insolvent fashion brands like Forever 21 or Brooks Brothers: bought from bankruptcy estates and continued solely for the name. CEO Jamie Salter once summed it up this way: You don’t buy struggling brands, but rather struggling companies; the brands themselves aren’t broken—only the business model behind them is. For the shopper in the store, the name remains the same; they continue to trust the same logo, the same brand—only there’s no one behind it anymore who has actually earned that trust.

Nature has known this principle for a long time. In late summer, a hoverfly perches on a flower, yellow and black striped like a wasp. It can’t sting. Nor does it need to: Birds that might eat it leave it alone; the stripes serve as a warning. For a bicycle brand, the name is this deceptive pattern: Buyers rarely check who actually owns the company behind it; they trust the name on the frame—usually rightly so, but not always. Market researchers have repeatedly demonstrated this since the 1960s: a product’s origin and name often shape trust more strongly than the actual quality behind it.

Same Motor, Different Name

This applies not only to a brand’s name but also to the technology behind it—though in exactly the opposite way: Here, the manufacturer often remains the same; only the name changes, depending on who is selling the product. Until 2025, the Franconian company Brose manufactured drivetrains for e-mountain bikes in Berlin, including the motor in the Specialized Turbo Levo. Then Brose sold the entire division to the Japanese conglomerate Yamaha, which renamed it Qore. Since then, the drivetrains from Berlin have been called Qore Drive³ instead of Brose Drive³ within the Yamaha Group—same technology, new branding. 

However, Brose also produced a second, older motor, the Drive S Mag: SRAM has been integrating this into its own system, called the Eagle Powertrain, since 2023—complete with its own shifting software—and sells it to manufacturers like Propain and Transition, who use it to build their e-mountain bikes. SRAM itself builds neither motors nor bikes but purchases the hardware from Brose. Anyone who chooses an Eagle Powertrain bike is primarily putting their trust in the SRAM name, one of the best-known brands in mountain biking. This trust is well-founded: SRAM developed the software in-house and stands behind the entire system with a warranty and support. Nevertheless, the underlying hardware remains that of another manufacturer—renamed and repackaged—and is not immediately recognizable to the buyer at first glance. Whether the name stays the same and the manufacturer changes, or the manufacturer stays the same and the name changes: In either case, the buyer cannot tell from the outside what is actually installed. Whether that matters only becomes clear on the trail, when it becomes evident whether the motor delivers what it promises.

A takeover can save or destroy a mountain bike brand

Not every change automatically means lower quality. Santa Cruz was acquired by the Dutch Pon Group in 2015; the brand remained what it was—one of the most respected enduro and downhill brands on the scene—with no loss of quality that anyone has documented. Things turned out differently for Schwinn, once America’s largest and most prestigious bicycle brand: After filing for bankruptcy in 1992, production shifted almost entirely to Asia, and the once-prestigious manufacturer became a mass-market brand. Today, the name is primarily found in big-box stores, no longer in specialty shops. Two paths, one pattern: In both cases, it was impossible to tell from the outside at the beginning which direction the brand would take.

In the case of Toblerone, a law mandated disclosure. Mountain bikers have to figure out for themselves what lies behind a brand—whether the name stays and the manufacturer changes, or the manufacturer stays and the name changes. The name on the frame was never a guarantee; it was always just a promise that someone would vouch for the quality. Who that “someone” is today changes more quietly and more often than it used to. A good name therefore remains a clue, not proof. If you really want to know, ride the bike before you trust the brand.