Made in Romania: the facelift of Pegas brand

The story of Pegas bicycles dates back to 1972, when the first Pegas for adults was manufactured. Almost 40 years later, the brand is getting a facelift thanks to Andrei Botescu and his team, who have managed to recreate the prototype of the Romanian bike, starting from registering the brand at the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM), as the patent had expired. BR talked to Andrei Botescu, the owner of Pegas bicycles, about the story behind the Romanian brand which is revitalized and put again into the spotlights.

When did you start to be interested in Pegas brand?

The story about this topic began in college, when I was studying at the University of Lund, Sweden. There, I learned about the power of national symbols and representations, how they change, juxtapose and transform over the time and especially in the context of so-called conflict between the trend of globalization and the preservation of national identity.

I finished the course with a thesis on “Branding National Identity” where I had to approach a concept debated especially by marketing specialists from a sociological perspective. After this thesis, life took me in other directions, but I was fully aware of any opportunity that can come regarding the subject. So it happened: I bought two expensive bikes from an American brand, one for me and one for my girlfriend, but we didn’t enjoy them very much while these were stolen. We didn’t have budget for another expensive bikes, so we thought at Pegas, the old Romanian brand, which has always been appreciated by cool people. It seemed a cool product in underground but cheap in mainstream, a perfect solution for both of us.

How did you make the rebranding of Pegas bicycles?

After the incident, my first question was if there was someone who still produces these bikes, so I called the factory from Zarnesti, Brasov, but they told me that they closed and decommissioned the production line. However, in my in research on Google I found out that the mass-production from Zarnesti has stopped and the brand has expired, while it was not registered at the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM). At first, it was a pity feeling that I had, but then I saw it as an opportunity and everything I learnt in the college came ahead: the national symbol, an eco trend industry in full growth, the need of identity, the strength of childhood memories and especially the challenge of taking over a brand and a story in a time when we all felt into a national depression sustained by the global recession.

Who is the team behind Pegas brand today?

After the brand registration, I needed to do the research for manufacturing the bikes and to form a team, as follows: Alexandru Manda, the one with marketing skills, Ciprian Frunzeanu, product designer, Adrian Tease, engineer, and Anamaria Georgescu, project manager as well as Adi Olar and Toni Grigoriu, as Pegas evangelists, and Stefan Trifan and Tudor Boldescu as bike blacksmiths.

Was it difficult to recreate the Romanian bicycle?

We made the first prototypes and then we began a global research for retailers of bicycles products, willing to work with small series designed by us. We didn’t find any local producer, so most of our products come from Germany, Italy, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, just to name a few countries.

Furthermore, we were looking for a suitable space, which must match the brand image, not too expensive, with great facilities for assembly and also near city center, to accomplish our ambitious plan sales. This is how we found the Cyclop building, a monument from 1923, more precisely the first multi-store car park in Bucharest which later became the communist Cyclop service.

There stands a workshop and a retail store, and the space allows us to organize large-scale cultural events such as last year’s “Work in Progress”, where 40 local and international artists drew the whole building for three week. The impact was amazing, we had over 5,000 visitors over that period and even the international press covered the event.

How were the sales in the first year of the rebranding?

In the firm’s first year on the market, it invented a Facebook application for bike reservations as demand was much higher than its sales expectations. In 2012, it sold 500 Pegas bikes, the number doubled in 2013, and the company is hoping to increase it by half again in 2014. The average price of a bike is RON 1,200, competitive for specialized bike stores, but high in comparison with hypermarket prices.

Do you plan to extent to other national or international markets?

After two years on the market, we are ready to present the world our product. We are trying to make a national network of Pegas distributors, while until now we were the ones who made the follow up with nationwide clients. In autumn, we will go to Eurobike, the largest European bicycle fair.

More about Romanian brands, here.

Oana Vasiliu

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