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Jumbo-Visma will grow to be Visma-Lease a Bike in 2024, in keeping with a report by WielerFlits, with the Pon-owned leasing firm serving to to bolster the group’s finances after the failed merger/takeover with Soudal-QuickStep.
Through the weekend the Jumbo-Visma senior directeur sportif Merijn Zeeman instructed Nieuwsblad that the group’s long-term future was assured however refused to enter particulars.
A spokesperson for Jumbo-Visma performed down the WielerFlits report when contacted by Cyclingnews. Nevertheless Pon Holdings, the privately owned Dutch conglomerate reportedly agreed to step in to fund the group after group supervisor Richard Plugge failed to seek out a global title sponsor. Funding from Pon apparently allowed Plugge to finish the plans for the merger/takeover with Soudal-QuickStep.
Pon owns Jumbo-Visma’s present bike sponsor Cervélo and different bike manufacturers resembling Cannondale, Gazelle, Focus and Schwinn. Additionally they import Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda within the Netherlands and have dealerships within the USA for Porsche, Ferrari and different luxurious manufacturers.
Pon Holdings BV claims their annual revenues exceed €10 billion and Lease a Bike is one other a part of the conglomerate.
Lease a Bike was already a minor sponsor of the Jumbo-Visma group in 2023 however is prone to grow to be a title sponsor in 2024 because the Jumbo grocery store chain ends its backing.
Norwegian enterprise software program and IT model Visma have already made it clear they’ll stay as a title sponsor, investing round €12 million and Pon apparently agreed to extend their sponsorship of Richard Plugge’s group when Specialised tried to be the group’s bike sponsor as a part of the Soudal-QuickStep merger/takeover. The group would maybe have a smaller finances than in 2023 however lowered their prices by permitting Primož Roglič to go away and be a part of Bora-Hansgrohe.
Lease a Bike claims that 7000 corporations within the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium have signed as much as their bike leasing programme, with 100,000 staff having fun with tax breaks as they lease a motorbike to journey to work and for leisure use. In response to reviews, a complete of 600,000 staff in 65,000 completely different corporations have used Pon’s completely different leasing manufacturers. 90% of all bikes are electrical bikes, that are delivered and serviced by means of a community of native bicycle sellers.
Volkswagen Monetary Providers, a Germany-based subsidiary of automotive model Volkswagen lately invested in Pon’s bike leasing manufacturers, with plans to develop into the USA and different markets.
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