On July 3, 2015 when Rob Roskopp and Rich Novak announced that they had sold Santa Cruz Bicycles to Dutch automobile importing company Pon Holding Group we all took a deep breath and hoped for the best. Neither Roskopp nor Novak are known for the patience while suffering fools, so we knew it would have to be a pretty bad day if they simply off-loaded the brand and walked away. Luckily, that didn’t happen.
In an interview with Bike Magazine’s Nicole Formosa, Roskopp outlines the ideas behind the sale, how it’s currently working, and what they have planned for the future. As always, he lays it down straight up. Here’s a bit on the sale:
Timing is everything. There are a lot of people throwing a lot of money around from private equity groups; we spoke to a number of them. I was getting calls from two different groups every week. Their whole model is to heavily leverage the company out and then sell it off in five years. I didn’t want that. I wanted a strategic partner, which Pon is. Like I said, we started talking three years ago. It was the former CEO for bike who’s not there anymore, and he came in right after we moved into our new building in Santa Cruz. And we just kept in touch, then I went over there (to the Netherlands, where Pon is based) a while later. We started talking more in-depth and seriously. At that time, it didn’t seem like it was going to work, so we just agreed to keep in communication and focus on building and growing the company. It got to the point when it was time to start moving on expanding in Europe. It’s funny, we contacted each other at the same time. We were getting ready to talk to a few other people, but I always thought they were the best fit for us.
For the rest of the interview, click the link.
[Link: Bike Magazine]
