Was the bicycle market adventure a mistake for Migros? "It's impossible to say at this point in time," emphasizes Mario Irminger, President of the Executive Board of the Migros Cooperative Alliance. What he does confirm, however: Bikeworld is being reviewed, as are the other specialist stores. SportX is already up for sale. If Bikeworld were to follow suit, it would be anything but surprising.

Current figures for the Migros bike stores are not known. So far, Migros managers have only spoken in general terms about the specialist stores and that their sales are falling. In 2022, their sales were 10.6 percent lower than in the previous year, which was already 6.7 percent below the 2020 result.

This makes you rub your eyes. The first Bikeworld store opened in 2017. Two more locations were opened in 2023. There have been 16 since then.

Bikeworld is suffering from the crisis and could exacerbate it

When asked about the options that Bikeworld still has, Irminger says that one scenario is for one of the ten regional Migros cooperatives to take over Bikeworld and continue to run it throughout Switzerland. "But a sale to a player outside the Migros family is also conceivable."

The specialist bike trade is in a difficult situation, in Switzerland and beyond. Stocks are overflowing while tills are empty. The large Bikeworld stores are also feeling the effects. And the question is who should take over these sales areas in this situation, who wants to expand in 2024 or who can still do so at all.

It is also unclear what the consequences would be if Bikeworld went under and the 16 large-scale stores closed their doors for good? Harry Ramsauer is the third generation to ride Ramsauer Radsport in St. Gallen. In 2023, Migros opened a Bikeworld branch 1.5 kilometers away. Ramsauer felt the effect immediately: "Entry-level bikes and affordable mountain bikes, of which we used to sell dozens, were no longer selling."

However, even worse than the competition would be for him if Bikeworld were to close. "Then there would be even more bikes on the market with big discounts," he is convinced and talks about a store that closed in 2023: "They started with a 10% discount in January and were at 50% in the summer. Even friends of mine bought a bike there." If Bikeworld were to throw its immense stock onto the Swiss market, the margins of dealers across the country would come under pressure.

Despite this, Harry Ramsauer says Bikeworld is just another challenge that he and his colleagues are facing. "Not everyone will survive this year," he predicts. Migros promises to continue operating the specialist stores it wants to sell off unchanged until a suitable buyer is found.