Cilo was quiet for several years. Three years ago, French businessman Alain Prénat tried to revive the brand. But because he suffered financial shipwreck even before the actual launch, Cilo disappeared from the scene before most Swiss cycling enthusiasts had even noticed the comeback. All the more surprisingly, Cilo reappeared at the end of March this year - in stores where nobody would have expected it. The "Landi", the specialist market of the Swiss farmers' cooperatives, offered a mountain bike under the name Cilo in its more than 350 branches throughout Switzerland. Further Cilo models followed in the weeks that followed, each at a special price for as long as stocks lasted in the stores. The bikes on offer so far - a hardtail, a fully and a trekking bike - cost between CHF 378 and CHF 599, with the "Landi" also advertising a higher recommended retail price in its advertisements.

Publicity-shy owners
However, the chain of specialist stores is not the new owner of Cilo. It purchases the bikes from the company Bike's Manufactory Sarl (B.M.S.), which took over the name from the bankrupt Cilo S.A.. This company is based in Couvet/NE and, according to its own information on the company website, has more than twenty years of experience in the bicycle sector. However, neither the company itself nor the two operators, Alain Stritt and Pierre-André Jeanrenaud, are well-known in the Swiss bicycle industry. Apparently it is also not in the company's interest to be known to the general public. The Cilo homepage, which is mentioned on the bikes, is not online, the B.M.S. website only provides non-binding information and B.M.S. did not respond to Ride's contact request. Various references on the company's homepage indicate that B.M.S also supplies bicycles to other sales channels outside the industry in addition to "Landi".

Successful racing past
In its heyday, Cilo sold around 40,000 bikes a year through specialist dealers. Not only cycling legends Hugo Koblet and Beat Breu won competitions on Cilo bikes, but also numerous mountain bikers. Cilo reached its peak in 1991, when Albert Iten, Walter Brändli and Roland Champion won three gold medals at the World Championships on bikes from Romanel-sur-Lausanne. Shortly afterwards, however, Cilo was no longer able to turn its sporting victories into commercial success. After sales had fallen sharply for several years, Cilo ceased production at the turn of the millennium and filed for bankruptcy shortly afterwards.