Inside the Company Trying to Solve the Global Bicycle Shortage
Billion dollar bike-maker Trek was bracing for its business to implode in the pandemic — until the opposite happened. Now, it‘s racing to keep up.
Back in early March, as Europe slid into lockdown, with the United States not far behind, John Burke, the CEO of Trek Bicycle Corp., called an emergency meeting. As he generally does when facing a crisis, he told his leadership team he needed three scenarios: Best case, worst case, and likely outcome. Soon, the oversized whiteboard in Burke’s office was a scrawl of figures, bullet points, and backup plans.
The mood was calm, matter-of-fact, but even the rosiest scenarios were exceedingly grim. The best Trek could hope for, Burke was told, was that sales would fall 50% in April, 20% in May, and remain flat through the rest of the year. The worst case? An 80% plunge in April followed by a 40% drop in May, with business tumbling an additional 10% to 20% through the end of the year. For Trek, it would be the business equivalent of watching a $9,000 Top Fuel XC mountain racer soar straight off a cliff — all that would remain would be to pick up the pieces.
To Burke, this seemed unfathomable. Trek was still riding the high of a record year in 2019, with…
