TRAXIO: Devos Cycles: diversity is the key to success

Family heritage

A great-grandson of the founder of Cycles Devos, Frédéric Rousseau is proud of the family success he has inherited. "I started helping my grandfather in the shop at a very young age, as a 'student job' as we would say now, a term that did not exist at the time. With his brother Laurent, he has been at the head of the family business since 2000. "We complement each other: he takes care of the technical side, and I take care of the commercial side," says the shopkeeper, who wants to keep the "multimodal" specificity of his business at all costs. "We want to be a mobility shop. We are one of the only shops in the Brussels area that sells both scooters and bikes, which represent an equal share of our turnover. Many of our customers appreciate this, and often own both.

This dual role allows the company to operate all year round, without being dependent on the weather like bike shops. In fact, about half of the scooter sales are to companies, who change their bikes "tax-wise", whatever the time of year.

It is this differentiation that is also the strength of Cycles Devos in the saturated landscape of the two-wheeler dealer in Brussels. "Before, all bicycle dealers also sold scooters, but little by little, they switched to one or the other. These are different professions, which require specific know-how, trained mechanics, etc. This is what we have. Without this, customer satisfaction, which is very important to us, suffers," confides Frédéric Rousseau.

The man also admits that the infrastructure and reputation of the company contribute to the success. "We have the advantage of being an old and well-known company in Brussels, with a history and a reputation. And the size of our shop allows us to offer a complete range of different brands. Since last year, the company has also been importing four-wheeled scooters from the Italian brand Quadro, with some success, since 50 scooters have already been sold in the first year of marketing.

Third actor

A sharing of bikes and scooters, to which electric bikes have been added. A new asset for the company. "For a few years now, electric bicycles have been giving a good boost to our sales. About half of the 1,500 bikes we sell annually are equipped with electric assistance. This is another string to the bow of Cycles Devos, which manages to have all three categories in its showroom. "We have divided the 2,000 m² of our showroom into three parts: bikes at the front, scooters at the back and electric bikes in between, since they are a kind of intermediary between the two categories."

However, Frédéric Rousseau asserts that there is no question of cannibalisation of sales between electrically assisted bikes and scooters. "It sometimes happens that some customers come into the shop undecided. It is then up to us to listen to them, to identify their needs and to direct them towards the solution that will best satisfy them. Each has its advantages and disadvantages: with the bike, lightness, ease and budget; with the scooter, distance and speed."

Despite this successful cohabitation, our interlocutor does not intend to extend his diversification to other means of transport. "We don't want to cast our net too wide, otherwise we won't get to the bottom of things. That's why we stopped selling motorbikes a few years ago, and why we didn't want to get into the new fashions of hoverboards and other niches. We leave that to the specialist shops."

A shared future

When it comes to the future of his company, the manager says he is both very worried and very serene. For him, the mix of his offer and the technical expertise will always remain assets for his customers. However, he is concerned about the growing competition from the Internet, which is "the sales landscape of tomorrow".

Encouraging the use of two-wheelers would also reduce traffic and the environmental impact of traffic in the city. However, this requires that the necessary improvements be made, which is not currently the case, according to Frédéric Rousseau: "The government must take two-wheelers into account when carrying out development work. The government must take account of two-wheelers when carrying out development work, but nothing is being done today, at least in Brussels and Wallonia. And it's a shame when you see the spectacular infrastructures that have been put in place in other European cities. It is time to do something to encourage people to travel by bike on a massive scale," he concludes.

More information on the website: https://www.traxio.be/fr/nouvelles/2017/11/cycles-devos-la-diversit%C3%A9,-cl%C3%A9-de-la-r%C3%A9ussite/