From his taste for the creation of green spaces, Anthony Joubert has kept the open air. He left the company that employed him for 22 years in Fontaine-sur-Aÿ, to devote himself to his first passion: two-wheeled vehicles. “I’ve been cycling since I was a kid. BMX, mountain biking, road, mogul field… I’ve tried just about everything, even a detour by moped”, laughs this young forty-something, well known to all mountain bikers in the Marne. “A friend, a bicycle dealer in the Ardennes, had been encouraging me to open a shop here for a long time. It was missing. »
At the end of 2018, a coveted business in Épernay passed under his nose for the first time. “A 70 year old store. Finally, the one who bought it took the full force of the Covid… It lasted 14 months. A second chance is then offered to Anthony Joubert. “I left my job as a landscaper, trained as a salesman-technician to improve myself and I finally bought it to create Alpha Cycles. Because even if you are passionate, you never know everything. It changes every six months… Electric assistance is madness. The fact remains that at the store, despite the eagerness of the customers and the mechanical challenges, it’s “a bit of Christmas every day when it comes to unpacking boxes. »
200 euros more per machine
Yet the Covid, even moving away, did not spare Anthony’s business. “On the one hand, demand has exploded: desire for the outdoors, flight from public transport… And on the other, parts from Asia are hardly supplied anymore. In China or Taiwan, huge factories ensure all world production. If they stop for two or three weeks, as was the case recently due to a reconfinement, here, it’s a tidal wave. At least that’s what the sales people say. »
Add to this the staggering cost of transport (the price of a container has been multiplied by three) and the now sensitive steel problems in Eastern Europe, and you can only count on a return to normal in 2025…maybe “Out of 10 customers who come in, I think I miss three or four sales. It’s frustrating. I do my best to find the right bike, thanks to the sales network. Otherwise, I try to direct to another brand, perhaps more expensive. “The bike suffers anyway inflation right in the handlebars: count 200 euros extra compared to before the crisis.
If the neo-practitioners, finally, are satisfied with what they find (the models resulting from a learned rhythm), the experts aspire to change more regularly. “Whoever has a specific request, size or model, leaves empty-handed. This is the case of road bikes with electronic transmission. We can’t even announce deadlines, it’s hard to work. For example, we have a supplier who must receive 500 Bosch motors per month and who only receives 100.”
If he did not start his activity “at the best time”, Anthony Joubert nevertheless believes in better days. “I can’t go back and be an entrepreneur, I like it. »