KOBLENZ, Germany (BRAIN) Canyon Bicycles sales grew by 1 million euros last year, from 791 million euros in 2023, to 792 million euros ($900 million at todays exchange rate) in 2024, according to an annual report from Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, which bought a roughly 50% share in the company in 2020.

GBL reduced the value of the Canyon shares it owns from 460 million euros at the end of 2023 to 261 million at the end of 2024.

Canyon had to navigate aggressive discounting affecting the entire bicycle sector as well as a one-off quality issue that the company is addressing with utmost attention, GBL said.

GBL said Canyon was seeing discounting especially in electric and non-electric mountain bikes and urban bikes. The quality issue mentioned is apparently the recall of batteries used on some e-MTB models late last year.

Since GBL made its investment, Canyon sales have grown by 384 million euros (a 94% increase) and the number of employees has grown by 670, to 1,660 now (that number is down from 1,693 at the end of 2023).

Canyon recorded a net loss of 38 million last year, up from a 14 million euro loss in 2023.

Canyons earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) has declined 10% since the 2020 investment and was down 8% last year, excluding adjustments for one-time supply chain issues in 2023. Including that adjustment, the decline in 2024 would have been 29%.

The losses and EBITDA decline apparently contributed to GBLs reassessment of the value of its Canyon shares. The company said it evaluates that value on a quarterly basis and the valuations are reviewed by a third party every six months.