I will use the previously quoted email from WhaTTfornow's President, Francois Guers, as the starting point of this thread. As noted by the bolded parts which KGT highlighted, there appear to be some big changes on the horizon for how Time Sport functions.
Key takeaways from this:Dear TIME Partners,
The ROSSIGNOL Group has just separated from the TIME brand (pedals / frames / bikes / accessories) by selling it to the creators of WhaTTfornow, a new brand of innovative e-bikes. It is with pleasure that we introduce to you François Guers, former R&D Director at Salomon, and Pierre Tognet, both were born in the Northern French Alps. They are the new owners of TIME, supplemented by financial investors, all passionate about cycling.
Very proud of this acquisition of this emblematic brand, their primary ambition to restore TIME to nobility.
Reactivate Innovation and Technology to propose you innovative products: this will be “back to the origin” and big R&D efforts will be made for this purpose.
From September, almost all of the current team will join the team of the start-up WhaTT in Rumilly, in the former premises of the Salomon factory which produced SALOMON skis and MAVIC wheels until 2008.
Together, we will restore TIME DNA and heritage to make it grow again.
Regarding products:
> 2 launches will be made in the coming weeks: the new “Cyclo” pedal and a new XC range
A new project “Top Secret” is also in the boxes of our R&D Team.
> RTM frameworks: R&D will be reinstalled in France and production will continue in our Slovak factory which has all ISO certifications and highly skilled operators.
> Reintroduction of the 4 families of existing frame / bike products:
SCYLON / FLUIDITY / AH 01 / AH21.
> Continuation of 2020 catalog colors in 2021 and additions of new designs which will be unveiled in July.
> Start of R&D for the development of a new high-tech totally new frame that will be launched in 2022.
On after-sales service: no break in service, the person currently handling your files and repears is part of the new team. A new person will be hired.
Our goal is also to revive Time with a reactivated Marketing and Digital Communication plan.
For the whole Time Team, see you soon,
François Guers
President WhaTTfornow & TIME
- WhaTTfornow's plans for Time Sport are focused on R&D and getting new products to market. This makes sense considering that Time's new president is the former head of R&D for Salomon.
- WhaTTfornow values what makes Time frames special in the first place, their unique-to-the-bike-industry RTM carbon work, and plans to continue using it in the future. They also plan to continue to manufacture in Europe at their plant in Slovakia.
While I would have liked to see a return to frame production back in France, it is at least reassuring to note that Time Sport will not be, A) ditching RTM for a different/cheaper manufacturing process, and B) is not going to be farming out their frame manufacturing to the China or Taiwan.
- WhaTTfornow plans to "reactivate" Time Sport's marketing and digital communications plans. This is great to hear because Time has to have one of the worst online presence of any company I can think of. Their website is sparse and provides little information. Their Facebook account barely has any updates. And they don't do a great job at all of getting eyeballs (and therefore interest) on their products. It will be interesting to see how long this takes to implement.
- Not in the email, but mentioned in the previous thread, is a renewed emphasis on supporting their dealers and possibly expanding their dealer network. This is good to hear because there are too many areas where there is no Time dealer. Los Angeles has ONE Time frame dealer for the entire metro region of 10+ million persons. Time has been notorious in the past for providing terrible dealer support (and post-sales support if you weren't in Europe). So any improvement in dealer and customer support is most welcome.
I'm really excited to see what the new "top secret" R&D project yields as well as seeing the new frame planned for launch in 2022.
How will this all pan out? Only "Time" will tell, but at least there is something to be excited about and to look forward to with this hopefully successful rebirth of Time Sport.