For the second time Stevens presented its new bike collection at Bike Expo in Kielce, Poland. The three-day fair has already grown to be Eastern Europe’s most important bike trade show. The market in this region becomes increasingly more demanding with a greater sense for brands and quality. This was apparent in the well-organized show but also for other reasons.

Even in smaller cities like a suburb of Kielce with 20,000 inhabitants, home of one of STEVENS’ suppliers which brand manager Volker Dohrmann visited before the trade show, many cycling events take place like triathlon, mountain bike and road bike competitions. And considering the increasing numbers of bikes in the streets, bicycles become a more and more popular means of transportation.

Nordex, a company from Poznan and STEVENS’ Polish distributer took care of the show booth in collaboration with head of sales Rainer König and export staff member Ralf Peintinger. They experienced an increasing interest in higher-quality bikes. ”Especially bikes retailing over 1,000 Euros sold very well. In our first year with STEVENS Bikes we were able to gain valuable experience that will be integrated into our 2016 strategy. Response of visitors and interest of dealers are about 40% higher than last year. So we want to offer STEVENS as a quality brand to even more dealers and have therefore reinforced our staff with bike-enthusiastic sales personnel”, says Mikolai Gierak, Nordex’ manager responsible for STEVENS. Besides STEVENS Fordex mostly distributes sporting goods and skiing equipment.

At the STEVENS booth especially the road bikes and time trial machines were to the public’s liking. But also the innovative P Carpo and some of the X-Cross models caught attention.

On Saturday, when the fair was open to the general public, an MTB marathon took place. Participants, and countless spectators, bike-enthusiastic families with their children crowded the halls to create a really vibrant atmosphere: Children who wanted to thest ride, collect brochures and giveaways, fathers with patience and expertise, mothers with their offspring wearing bike jerseys.

Cycling seems to have arrived in Poland – or never to have been gone. After all Germany’s neighbour country is home to last year’s Elite Road Race World Champion. Posters of Cyclocross World Champion Mathieu van der Poel riding a STEVENS Super Prestige were out of stock long before the show ended.