April 17, 2020 - (Montreal, QC) With seven retail outlets in Montreal, Bicycles Quilicot, is arguably the largest bicycle retailer in Quebec. The legendary shop has a storied past and CEO Marc-André Lebeau, who took over in 2005, has grown the business over the years, yet currently faces one of his biggest challenges with all locations currently closed due to the coronavirus.
A former Canadian junior road champion in 1996, Lebeau was familiar with e-bikes becoming bullish on them again in 2016 when he acquired Vélo Branché and has never looked back. Fully integrated into all seven locations his focus is now on the operation’s on-line digital presence which is so vital at this time for all businesses given the current global crisis. We caught up with the dynamic and forward-thinking Lebeau following the launch of Bicycles Quilicot’s fully bilingual web site.
The current crisis is affecting business around the globe… how is it affecting you in Quebec.
Marc-André Lebeau: Currently every retail store, in all fields, has been closed except for drug stores and grocery stores. Since two weeks (March 31) everything’s been closed on Sunday. For us we’ve reorganized our operation to drive all of our business to our web site and digital platforms as both on-line sales and delivery are still permitted here. We kept all of our full-time staff to answer customer phone calls and to deliver bikes directly to clientele within 20km of any of our Bicycles Quilicot store locations.
You recently acquired Momentum Velo and now have 7 retail outlets… how did that come about ?
MAL: Yannick [Guimond] the founder and owner used to work for us before starting Momentum Velo. He was at Bicycles Quilicot for four years from the time he was 16 years old. Now he’s 30 years old and back with us. For the past few years we’ve kept in contact and when he saw the opportunity to sell his store he approached me.
You took over Bicycles Quilicot in 2005 but the store has a rich history being established in 1915.
MAL: Louis Quilico was an Italian immigrant and at the age of 15 he started the business. He was the father of cycling in Quebec and financed the first velodrome in Montreal. He also created the Quebec-Montréal race and managed the greatest cycling club in Canada. Louis had five children and all of them took over the business until 1987. Louis Junior was a famous opera signer and another son Gino was also a great singer.
The Quilico family sold the store to Andre Letourneau in 1987 but tough times led him to close the store in 2005 and I bought the brand name and the inventory. It’s interesting to note that the Quilico family name doesn’t have a “T” at the end. Louis add the “T” in early 1920 because the mafia was strong at that time and he didn’t want his business to sound Italian.
You opened your first e-bike store Vélo Branché par Quilicot in 2016… what was your motivation ?
MAL: The Vélo-Branché store was for sale and I had a good feeling about the e-bike vibe at the time. Back in 2007-2008 we used to sell so much BionX product but we had trouble with it so we dropped out of that market. In Montreal, from 2008 to 2016, Velo-Branché became the e-bike specialist store and when the opportunity came up we acquired the store.
Fun fact: The Velo-Branché store was located on the street that was one of my choices when I first bought Bicycles Quilicot back in 2005, but we decided to open on Masson St. in the Rosemont area instead.
What were the initial challenges and successes since launching your first e-bike store?
MAL: The learning curve was pretty challenging as the business was different than our usual set up. We also had difficulty to find brands at the time. Velo-Branché was only driven with BionX systems as the owner didn’t believe in mid-drive motors. I did a lot of research to find suitable brands while balancing our inventory as the average unit cost for e-bikes is expensive. We also needed cashflow to manage the inventory but our growth was so good from the start that we were able to put ourselves in a good position very quickly. We also developed our e-bike expertise in all of our Quilicot locations (four at the time).
Tell us about the types and brands of e-bikes you sell and the clientele you’re servicing ?
MAL: We sell every type of e-bike from commuters, to leisure, to hybrid e-bikes, along with eMTB and e-road models including some specialty e-bikes. Our brands include Specialized, Cube, Moustache, BMC, Rocky Mountain, Opus, Devinci, Pinarello, iGo and Gocycle. Myself I ride a Specialized Creo Evo Comp to commute every day. We service all kinds and types of riders as e-bikes have a broad appeal.
Are you also selling e-bikes in your other locations and how is that going ?
MAL: Yes we offer e-bikes in all of our locations and the segment represents about 20-25% of our overall sales and continues to grow.
Quebec is a bike-crazy province… are you seeing more acceptance and interest in e-bikes ?
MAL: Yes more than ever… e-bikes aren’t only for baby boomers and retired people anymore. Our customers can be young as 14 years old.
You recently converted your web site and made it bilingual… how is that going ?
MAL: Yes our new bilingual web store recently launched. It was massive project and a “labour of love” as I’m a real French Canadian and 10% of our staff are from France. We currently have a few English employees to serve customers. We’re also beginning to create English videos and other content. It’s a work in progress.
Tell us about you’re involvement with clubs, teams, events or community programs…?
MAL: We have a great cycling club with about 225 members. We’re also co-sponsoring a road cycling race team this year with Specialized. Quilicot is now back in the peloton after being off the grid for 5-6 years.
What are your plans over the next few years i.e. more stores ?
MAL: Our current focus is to accelerate our digital development as we want to improve our web site and our on-line presence which is the area of our business that needs the most attention right now.
All the best going forward in these challenging times.
MAL: Thanks
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