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LighTech partners with Bihr for France
Leading Italian parts and accessory manufacturer LighTech ( based near Venice ) has announced an exclusive distribution agreement for France with Bartenheim based Bihr S . A . S . A division of the Belgian Moteo Group since 2010 , Bihr was founded in 1975 by Cyrille Bihr , and has grown to be one of Europe ’ s largest motorcycle parts and accessories distributor with sales offices in France , Belgium , the Netherlands , Switzerland , Scandinavia ( Duells ) and Spain . With some 12,000 dealers supplied from a state-of-the-art
Best known for custom parts for street bikes and sportbike models , LighTech has also added a touch of elegance to the TMAX 530
30,000 sq m headquarters warehouse at Bartenheim near the Swiss and German borders in north-eastern France ( along with 12,600 sq m at Totana , Spain , and 20,000 sq m near Stockholm , Sweden ), the company says it achieves a 95.8 percent fill rate , with some 160,000 part numbers available ( 30,000 added in 2016 ), covering 350 brands . Bihr has been involved with LighTech for several years already . Pichard of Switzerland , which became Bihr Switzerland , was already selling LighTech products , so adding France is an extension of an established programme . Bihr is currently working to build a large inventory for its French platform in order to be able to deliver LighTech ’ s products in one day for approximately 80 percent of the programme . The remaining items can be special-ordered . LighTech ’ s 2017 catalogue edition will be available for Bihr ’ s French dealers soon , and the whole range for the TMAX is already available and introduced in Bihr ’ s Scooter product-specific catalogue . LighTech finalised their deal with Bihr to distribute their products in France at the Bartenheim based distributor ’ s recent Paris sales meeting
Alex Gelbcke , Bihr CEO , said : “ We are confident that there is a strong interest for LighTech on the French market , mainly because of the quality of their products and the brand ’ s reputation . Mixed with Bihr ’ s know-how , this should be the beginning of an excellent partnership between our two companies for the coming years ”. Bihr says it has approximately 2 million individual products in stock at any one time , and effective immediately that will include the full LighTech range of stylish , high quality replacement and upgrade parts for many of the most popular current motorcycle models . LighTech was founded by Fabrizio Furlan in 1997 as an extension of his family ’ s specialist metalwork business , which means it can draw on three decades of precisionmanufacturing experience and an ISO 9001 accreditation backed reputation for quality and innovation that has its origins on the racetrack – having worked closely with elite teams in the WSB , 125GP and 250GP championships . That quality and experience is evident in the range of technologically advanced motorcycle performance parts and accessories for road bikes that LighTech ’ s 2,500 authorised dealers can choose from - with over 7,000 Ergal products available in six different colourways , over 400 titanium products and a host of other accessories . www . lightech . it www . bihr . eu
INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - APRIL / MAY 2017 13