Canyon
Headquartered in Koblenz, Germany, Canyon is the leading direct-to-consumer bicycle retailer and manufacturer of some of the world’s highest-quality road, mountain, and urban bikes. The award-winning company sponsors elite professional cyclists and teams, positioning itself as a global brand. The brand has earned the yellow jersey when it comes to technology, design, and performance.
Our Partnership
Our team first met Canyon founder Roman Arnold at a bicycle industry event in 2013. He was not looking for an investment at that time, but we developed a trusted relationship over the coming years. In 2015, ready for an outside investment to help establish the Canyon U.S. business, Roman made TSG his first call. The minority equity investment partnership was completed in June 2016.
Strategic Focus
We provide analytical and strategic support to Canyon around various organizational and growth initiatives, such as key hires, marketing activities, eCommerce development, global expansion – particularly in the US – and product portfolio evaluation, including new product development. We have primarily focused on helping the company enter the U.S. market, leveraging our deep knowledge of American consumers.
Additionally, we’ve worked to improve Canyon’s financial and reporting functions, as well as helping establish the optimal capital structure that will support the growth of the business.
Demonstrated Impact
In just a short amount of time, we’ve made significant progress establishing Canyon’s U.S. operations. We helped recruit the Canyon US senior leadership team, identify the site for the company’s U.S headquarters and establish the operating model, all of which has enabled Canyon to track towards its 2017 launch target. Our first year of investment, 2016, saw strong year-over-year growth, due in part to the integration of new systems that allowed Canyon’s factories to produce efficiently. We were exceptionally proud when Canyon was named brand of the year by BIKE Magazine, TOUR Magazine, Cycling Magazine, and the Eurobike awards.
“Our Canyon partnership was one of the most special examples of the exponentially powerful impact of a passionate and visionary entrepreneur surrounded with the extensive company building resources and expertise that TSG can bring to bear.”
— Blythe Jack, Managing Director
