Campagnolo’s current financial predicament and rumours of imminent redundancies are sad news for cycling and sad news for the legendary Italian cycling industry.
Blame has been laid on the pandemic and the post-pandemic health of the global bicycle trade.
I’m sure that has had an impact on Campagnolo, as it has for many brands, but I think the seeds were sown for its troubles way before that point.
A bold decision
In 2007, Campagnolo took the bold decision to reposition itself as a ‘high-end’ brand, dropping its long-standing Mirage, Xenon and Centaur groupsets.
Instead, it would concentrate on producing the Shimano Ultegra-rivalling Chorus, Dura-Ace-matching Record, and (in Campagnolo’s view) beyond Dura-Ace: Super Record.
Back then, debates in coffee shops, pubs and at our office always revolved around Shimano versus Campagnolo. Anecdotally, bike-shop wisdom spouted the phrase ‘Campag wears in, Shimano wears out’.
That's nonsense, I’m sure, but the fact is the debate was always Italy versus Japan. Today, Campagnolo isn’t mentioned in the Shimano versus SRAM debate that has supplanted it.
It was a bold move for Campagnolo to stop making affordable groupsets, and at the time, I thought it was remarkably short-sighted.
As a long-time Campagnolo fan, my own top-tier bike from the late 90s and early 2000s (and a bike I still own) was Storck’s incredible Scenario Comp, a high-end aluminium race bike that I adored. There was only one choice for the custom build, and that was, of course, Campagnolo.
Back in 2008, I was on a fact-finding trip around Italy, meeting the titans of the Italian bike industry: Bianchi, De Marchi, Rudy Project, Pinarello, Colnago, Prologo and others. Campagnolo was a particular highlight of the tour.
When I sat down in the brand's wood-panelled boardroom at the historic Vicenza factory, my first question was to ask why it had abandoned the entry-level market. The reply was a confident “we are a high-end brand”, to which I countered: “Where are your new customers going to come from?”. To which Campagnolo repeated the mantra “We are a high-end brand”.
My argument was yes, of course, Campagnolo had a reputation for quality and high-end performance. That was undeniable, but therein lies the problem. To my generation, who’d grown up lusting after Campagnolo, the repositioning would make sense. But not to the generations it needs to sell to now.
I was asked, as the interview was winding up, what my impression of Campagnolo was. My reply: “I think Campagnolo is a company stocked with brilliant, talented engineers, but these decisions are foolish.”
I think the same today.
Campagnolo fans are old fans
I, a Gen X-er, am not the future of cycling. In the nigh-on two decades since Campagnolo’s decision to get out of the mid- and entry-level, and therefore pretty much abandon OEM (original equipment) specification on complete bikes, there effectively haven’t been any new Campagnolo customers.
I’d argue that if you start out on Shimano or SRAM and get used to their ecosystem and ergonomics, you won’t make the switch to Campagnolo. You're even less likely to do so when that gamble would cost you thousands for the privilege – no matter how good Super Record 13 could be.
On a photoshoot a few months back, I was chatting with one of the younger riders (a 20-something Cat 1 racer, and roadie obsessive through and through). The conversation turned to the latest Super Record and its huge price tag. He told me he’d never used Campagnolo, and more than that, never seen Campagnolo Super Record in the flesh.
For a brand that was once ubiquitous in road cycling, that shocked me.
Even more recently, I was chatting with one of my oldest friends and cycling buddies who, like me, is on the wrong side of 50. We were talking about his potential next bike purchase. He wanted to make the right choice, because in his words, “this could be the last serious bike I buy”.
This is the current Campagnolo customer; they have a good amount of disposable income – you need it in order to be able to afford Campagnolo, but they’re not getting any younger and many are looking to buy their forever bike.
What Campagnolo needs to do to survive
Campagnolo’s current line-up of myriad iterations of Super Record – four electronic and two mechanical – dilutes the premium. I’m not sure what the differences are, and I’m sure customers feel the same.
There's Chorus mechanical and two versions of the gravel group, Ekar. Mechanical road groupsets are a minority choice nowadays, and even more so rim brake options.
Ekar sent out the right signals, but it worked out to be expensive and is rarely seen as original equipment beyond a few hipster brands and custom builders.
First, Campagnolo needs to bring back groupsets at an affordable price and into the mid-range. Thankfully, it has confirmed it's preparing a mid-level group launch, but I think that’ll be more in the SRAM Force and Shimano Ultegra space.
Really, it needs to be rivalling SRAM's Rival and Shimano’s 105.
That means the return of Centaur. Ideally, I like to see the return of Mirage or Xenon, too, having something to compete with SRAM's Apex in the gravel groupsets space. Shimano has left a window open because it has not replaced the ageing Tiagra.
Campagnolo also needs a serious overhaul of its OE sales approach; the only chance it has to get back to where it should be. Being a serious rival to SRAM and Shimano means having bikes on shop floors fitted with Campagnolo components.
I’m not oblivious to the challenges of Campagnolo remaining proudly Made in Italy, but it already has a factory in Romania. I think we’re all savvy enough to know that fellow proudly Italian-made brands such as Colnago, Bianchi, Wilier Triestina and others only make a small amount of their inventory in Italy.
Pogačar wins on a Colnago made in Taiwan, not in Cambiago.
I hope Campagnolo can turn things around, and some of the whispers coming out about its recovery plan are making the right noises. I hope it makes bold plans and comes back fighting for the market share it once held.
If Campagnolo goes the way of previous component brands such as Simplex, Huret or Sachs – or legendary Italian bike brands such as Legnano – that’d be a great shame and a huge loss for the industry. Campagnolo was a company that once innovated like no other and gathered devoted fans at will.
I hope it might be again.
