Campag lay offs.

[grantoury]

Relying on the past is a sure fire way of not making the future.
Diminishing market.

Indeed

 

[Rapparee87]

that's sad, my take is that they tried competing with shimano and sram and i don't think their customer base is that customer, all my road bikes have been campagnolo equipped since 1995, but the last record groupset i bought was the 10 speed that had carbon brake levers and a carbon faceplate on the rear mech, i have moved it from frame to frame up until about 2010. when the cranks went carbon i didn't like it, and why? simple really, you can polish alloy but not carbon, and carbon looks boring. as campagnolo has always had an element of being super shiny bling as well as being almost the purists choice i kind of think that the newer stuff although great quality is arguably simply not on the same par as Dura Ace.

i think if they went back to making high quality alloy record/chorus it would massively appeal to people like me that like modern steel road frames like Colnago or Cinelli. i mean shimano are dropping road caliper rim brakes, if campagnolo did an alloy record or chorus 11 or 12 speed rim brake set up i think that would sell.

Well said sir.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Let's face it
The name "Campagnolo" (and copyright on all the trademarks within) is worth a lot more than a business losing multi-millions a year and all sorts of legal obligations hanging on over priducts, workforce, physical infrastructure and so on.

If they follow the raleigh path, you can xpect the brand on a supermarket bike near you soon

 

[Woz]

Let's face it
The name "Campagnolo" (and copyright on all the trademarks within) is worth a lot more than a business losing multi-millions a year and all sorts of legal obligations hanging on over priducts, workforce, physical infrastructure and so on.

If they follow the raleigh path, you can xpect the brand on a supermarket bike near you soon

Sadly, if the vultures swarm in this will happen. Sold overseas with all the marketing "powder in the eyes" rhetoric. Transformed to something purchased rather than earned with know and experience over a long period. Let's not forget this company was a subcontractor to NASA.

As for bike .... I honestly don't know. We discuss a lot at the Inn, and bicycles for the most part is now today considered disposable.

What get's me the most with Campag, this damn quest since what the late 1940 of adding another sprocket will sell another gruppo. Even the concept of a full gruppo is dismembered - they are practically on a worst footing like Simplex in the 80s - the glory is over. Another era.

They have some scale of production but really time to re-think the pro and amateur market with some true innovation. Why aren't they taking on Rohloff, why aren't they making sealed drive units, why are they flogging this dead donkey of pro peloton appeal that they have already lost?

 

[bikeworkshop]

Sadly, if the vultures swarm in this will happen. Sold overseas with all the marketing "powder in the eyes" rhetoric. Transformed to something purchased rather than earned with know and experience over a long period. Let's not forget this company was a subcontractor to NASA.

As for bike .... I honestly don't know. We discuss a lot at the Inn, and bicycles for the most part is now today considered disposable.

What get's me the most with Campag, this damn quest since what the late 1940 of adding another sprocket will sell another gruppo. Even the concept of a full gruppo is dismembered - they are practically on a worst footing like Simplex in the 80s - the glory is over. Another era.

They have some scale of production but really time to re-think the pro and amateur market with some true innovation. Why aren't they taking on Rohloff, why aren't they making sealed drive units, why are they flogging this dead donkey of pro peloton appeal that they have already lost?

Unfortinately their factory is entirely unsuited to such a big change in manufacturing techniques without more investment than starting from scratch.

One of our Trade Reps visited the Campagnolo factory recently and was surprised at the acres of machinery now under covers.

Sounds like Raleigh in 1990.
1st world business with extensive history, tradition and legal obligations, but no capital - so almost no ability to move with the times.

 

[doctor-bond]

I wonder if they still have the tooling to make silvery aluminium stuff? Maybe it’s at the back of the factory. That could be an interesting niche rebirth. Unlikely to be enough hipster-grouches to keep it rolling though.

More likely the brand will get sold and nerfed like MG.

 

[neilbah]

I had heard there was another groupset coming before rouleur and then what turned up was the single ring gravel version of SR 13s wireless with the jockey cage swap. Its actually pretty nice but its clear the marketing strategy was to hand out a load of groupsets Gratis as there was no shortage of SR equipped bikes there - All very well gracing the show bikes and for people to oooh at it in Via Atelier but it doesn't relate to the real world sadly - when users make a choice. The industry has shrunk post boom and most of the main brands are seeing lower sales and profitability. Personally i think one error is not continuing with a chrome groupset like potenza..but with ultratorque instead of power torque crank...please. There are a lot of old steel bikes out there and a fair few look good as neo retro builds that are also functional. They could have carved themselves out somewhat of a niche by offering special panto versions of brands or supplied imagery whereas Campagnolo instead now seem like the subject of a pantomime.