The Business of Cycling

Joe Benedict, Vice President of Category Management at Quality Bicycle Products (QBP), pulls back the curtain on America's largest cycling distributor.

With 5,500 retailers served nationwide and over 45,000 products in their portfolio, QBP sits at the center of the US cycling supply chain — yet remains largely invisible to the outside world. 

Joe breaks down how QBP actually operates, from their category-based business model to their four-warehouse logistics network, and explains why landing a distribution deal with QBP is just the starting line, not the finish.

For European brands eyeing the US market, this one is essential listening. We also get into the current state of the aftermarket parts business, what the industry looks like post-pandemic inventory crisis, and why QBP sees 2026 as a year to take control and move forward.

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Recorded live at Performance Days 2026 in Munich, this panel brought together three of the most influential ingredient brands in performance apparel — Polartec (Eric Yung), Elastic Interface (Gianluca Pellicciari), and Polygiene (Eva Doll) — alongside the design leads at Albion (Graham Raeburn) and Santini (Fergus Niland) to unpack a relationship the cycling industry rarely talks about openly: the strategic relationship between ingredient partners and brands. The conversation moved past the hangtag.

The panel dug into what real co-development looks like (hint: it starts with trust and a shared problem, not a logo), why so many brands fail to communicate the value their ingredient partners create, and how cycling still lags behind the outdoor industry in maturing this conversation.

The throughline: ingredient brands are an under-leveraged R&D arm sitting right there, waiting to be used better.

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In this episode, Sam Nicols returns to The Business of Cycling to break down one of the most consequential — and arguably under-reported — stories in the industry right now: the unraveling of Accell. Sam, who serves on the board of Propain Bikes and previously led YT Industries through the post-COVID downturn, brings a rare combination of operator experience and acquisition insight to the conversation.

We trace Accell's path from a steady, publicly-traded European conglomerate of brands like Haibike, Raleigh, and Lapierre, to its 2022 take-private deal by KKR at a $1.4 billion valuation — closed at the absolute peak of the post-COVID cycling boom. From there, we unpack the perfect storm that followed: collapsing demand in the entry-to-mid segment where Accell was strongest, the Babboe cargo bike recall, a hollowing-out of the middle of the market, and the brutal mechanics of a leveraged buyout when revenue drops 40%.

We also get into KKR walking away from roughly $1.1 billion in equity earlier this year, what restructuring is underway, and what it would actually take for Accell to find stable ground again. A candid, sober look at how a company can go from looking like the perfect investment target to a cautionary tale in less than three years.

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Herrmans Bike Components is a 67-year-old Finnish manufacturer most cyclists have never heard of — even though their grips, lights, and rim tape are quietly riding on bikes across Europe. Built on decades of OEM work for some of the biggest e-bike brands, Hermans operates a highly automated factory on Finland's west coast that competes head-on with Asian suppliers on price, lead time, and service.

In this conversation, CEO Dan Liljeqvist walks me through the company's arc: from a privately-held family business, through a 2019 private equity transition that split off its industrial lighting arm, into the post-COVID correction that forced the cycling industry to reckon with itself. And now, the hardest move of all — stepping out of the shadows to build a consumer-facing brand in the European aftermarket.

We talk about why automation only works when you have the volume to justify it, what the Nordic entrepreneurial spirit has to do with surviving as a European manufacturer, and why going from anonymous supplier to recognized brand might be the toughest leap a company in this industry can make.

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Hugo Davidson didn't set out to build a bike accessories brand. Trained as an industrial designer in Melbourne, he spent years contracting at London design firms before co-founding his own consultancy back in Australia.

Then came the dot-com crash — a failed retail technology startup (one that held the iPod trademark before Apple), $2 million in debt, and a stark question: what now? The answer came from one of his last remaining designers, a former bike shop employee who saw an opening in cycling accessories. Armed with frequent flyer points and a portfolio of quirky, design-forward prototypes, Hugo showed up at the 2002 Taipei Bike Show and walked away with 16 distributors in 16 countries. 

Twenty-five years later, KNOG has sold over 7 million of its iconic frog lights, navigated the rise of Chinese competition and e-commerce, and remains stubbornly optimistic about the future of cycling. In this conversation, Hugo and I talk about entrepreneurial resilience, the evolution of bike retail, and why — as his German distributor likes to remind him — people will always ride bikes.

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