Is this the End For Campagnolo?
 

Campagnolo lays of 40% of staff

It really doesnt look good for them. They have been on their heels for so long now (since the late 70's) I cant see them returning to viability again.

Well... bye!

Look for a whole wall of Campagnolo branded stuff at Walmart when they sell the name.

They are still around?....

The brand hasn't been relevant to overall cycling for a couple decades. Even when they release an SR group and it gers press...the brand wasn't relevant. Even after they released Ekar and it was covered heavily in the press...the brand wasn't relevant.

Ekar is as close to relevant as they have been since the mid-00s...and it is an incredibly niche product.
They have basically 0 OEM presence and they have basically no product offering that is designed to bring someone into the Campy ecosphere as a new cyclist that will hook em and lead to higher group sales.

From what I have read over the tears, this approach has all been intentional. Campy has chosen this route. So they apparently want to be here...odd.

They just released Super Record X and Super Record 13. I doubt they are going anywhere. I am sure this is not good at all but I doubt they are going anywhere at least for a while.

I wonder if another component manufacturer will buy them for the name, prestige, and patents. Maybe not SRAM or Shimano, but one of the Chinese companies.

Step 0: you are the dominant brand so you arrogantly charge inflated prices
Step 1: competitor companies arrive but you turn your nose at them
Step 2: your stuff is overpriced but doesn't actually perform any better
Step 3: nobody buys your stuff because people are actually rational
Step 4: your poor popularity means few bike shops sell and service your stuff
Step 5: the lack of service becomes yet another knock against you
Step 6: you arrogantly double down on the luxury farce
Step 7: you go bankrupt and your brand name is bought by the Chinese

lol...

How are they going sustain their long term future if they've fired 40% of their people? Designing and making good products requires people and expertise.

This is just a downward spiral at this point.

We don't know the full scope of who they have laid off so we don't know. It may not be a permanent situation we don't really know yet. Obviously there current situation is not good and that article is not promising but we simply don't yet know. They have been around quite a while so it is not like they are some new start up.

We are living in the disposable era, where each new product makes previous products obsolete. And even if they aren't obsolete, the science of marketing has conditioned us to believe "New stuff good, old stuff bad." In Campy's heyday, bikes and components were meant to last, a bike was product which could give you a decade or more of use. A bike made in 1960 was not that much less different than a bike made in 1980. To Campy's credit, though they were expensive, they tried to give you what you paid for. Top quality materials, fit, finish, and workmanship, and many of their components which have seen half a century of use look in better condition than modern Shimano and SRAM look after half a season (all of my bikes are fitted with Shimano and SRAM components).

What Campy are experiencing now is representative of the bike industry as a whole. Shimano and SRAM are also suffering from tough times, with both companies earning net losses this year. As of September, Shimano saw operating profit fall by two-thirds over 2024, which itself was not a great year.

Is Campagnolo's stuff actually better than Shimano and SRAM's stuff?

From everything I've read Shimano's shifting is the best of the three. So what's justifying Campagnolo charging significantly more than Shimano? "Mystique"?

No wonder they are going under. Mystique is only if your stuff is better. If your stuff is worse, then you're just worse, the end.

Now let's say at the high end all the groups are so close that any "better" or "worse" is just picking at nothing. Ok, great. So if it's all the same, then why would anyone pay more? "Mystique" again?

It turns out that customers are actually rational. Who would have thought.

The prevalent thought through the 00's was that brand new Shimano is slightly smoother than Campag. Shimano of that era has a very light action and quiet shift and Campy is a more positive shift. Neither are loud or rough but the Shimano is smoother.

Campy doesn't really wear out though, it basically shifts perfectly forever and the Shimano gets sloppier over time. I've got two similarly aged bikes with similar groups - 10speed chorus and 9 speed Ultegra. In my experience this is true. The Campy lasts longer, stays smoother, and the shifters are rebuildable.

To me, for 25 year old stuff, this is a huge advantage.

The disadvantage is that all or almost all their stuff is only compatible with itself. You really can't mix Campy and Shimano. This feels like a bigger disadvantage for Campy only because most spare parts are Shimano.

For new stuff, I really like my Ekar group. The brakes are made by Magura and work amazing. The ergonomics of the hoods and shifters is perfect for me, it's almost like Ergo should be in the name. But, and this bothers me, my Ekar never quite feels perfect. It shifts well but it took me a while to dial it in. I watched some videos and learned more and got it pretty good. It's not as smooth as 10 speed Campy or even 12 speed SRAM. It's 4 stars for me, not 5.

The secret hidden from many, Campy is going out of business for one reason: They won't put model numbers on their components!

Ha, for example Shimano has a 7700 Dura Ace this-or-that, SRAM has a RD-XX-SLE-B1 derailleur. Try identifying a Campy component. THAT's why they are gong down the porcelain funnel. Now get off my lawn!!!:50:

And no, I DO run Campy stuff, so not a Shimmy snob. :D

That is the problem "everything I have read" meaning you haven't tried it so you really don't know. In terms of shifting it works quite well but more to the point unlike Shimano you can rebuild their shifters (or at least could). The problem I have with Shimano mechanical is the brake lever is a shift lever which is not great Campagnolo has two shifters so you are avoiding that issue and avoiding SRAMs double tap issue where the shift lever does two functions so it is a bit harder to glean where you are on the cassette sometimes.

There certainly is a tiny bit of "mystique" because they for the longest time where the winners at all the races, much of their stuff has been handmade or carefully inspected by hand. They aren't building for the bottom they are building for the top. You can complain but that is a segment of the market and they have made some important innovations over the years. I don't think cycling would be where it is without them.

In the end though people sometimes go by preference but in a lot of cases it is purely just what you have already ridden. I know I have had those biases in the past because I hadn't given other group sets a chance and I think a lot of people have that. I have seen it personally.

Probably all of the top end group sets are pretty damn good and if you get a chance to try them all on the same bike and then make your decision it would be interesting. I would say on the electronic side they are probably closer than anything but mechanical I would probably give it to Campagnolo for the above mentioned reasons. However your hand might find another shifter more comfortable.

It's very hard to even get to try Campagnolo these days. It's been years since I've seen it in the wild. Almost no shops carry them and I never see anyone riding them. I rode with a guy two years ago who spent half the ride explaining to me why he left Campagnolo for Shimano. He couldn't find anywhere to get his Campagnolo bike serviced, couldn't find spare parts, and worst of all when he traveled with the bike if anything broke his trip was screwed because he couldn't get it repaired on the road.

But anyway it's not really a matter of me personally comparing both. Shimano is universally acknowledged to be smoother shifting.

So tell me, why would I, as a rational money spender, pay more money to "try" Campagnolo's less smooth shifting? I already know it's a worse product. Is my curiosity worth wasting thousands of dollars?

Makes no sense... which is the exact conclusion 99% of people make, which is why Campagnolo is going under.

A leads to B leads to C. It is what it is.

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Yeah I've already addressed the "all the high end products are almost the same" argument. Read my previous post.

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Yes they used to win races but nowadays they are nowhere to be seen in the races. In 2024 they even dropped out of the World Tour. If they're not even appearing at the Tour de France, where's the mystique?

We (this forum not you and I) talked about this recently with bad reviews. I would say yes Shimano is more wide spread but I don't know if they are smoother than Campy.

You only know it is a worse product because you haven't tried it and don't know. You are just the same as everyone else in the industry who goes "that product sucks because someone said so once" I have a co-worker who claims to hate SRAM yet has not ridden it you are doing the same. I had similar views back in the day when I was young and didn't know much but I have evolved. I will say I might not like something on stuff I have tried or worked on significantly as I can make a more informed opinion However just saying "I haven't tried it so it has to suck" is just wrong.

When I first saw SRAM had new brakes several years ago I said they must suck but then I actually tested them and realized they were pretty good and then their new Maven brakes came out and I said I wouldn't say no to a bike with them. I am running SRAM AXS on a bike and honestly it has been a great experience and in the past my immature self would never have done that.

Some people like slamming shots of cheap whisky because they are easily available and some people want a 12 year old Bourbon neat in a Glencairn.

Although the debate of smoother vs articulate has been beat to death, it certainly is not the cause for Campagnolo's troubles. For what it's worth, Campagnolo shifts surely and succinctly. In no way do I personally find Campagnolo shifting as "not smooth". It simply does not have slop built into it like the other brands.

Well yeah, in other words, it shifts clunky. Decisively, sure, but clunky.

We can mask it with polite language all we want. Choose a word that makes it sound not as bad. Call it decisive. Call it feedback. End of the day all these are just code words for the truth which is it's less smooth compared to Shimano's shifting.

As mentioned this has all been beaten to death by hundreds of reviews for years.

Yeah, Campy and Shimano both shift very nicely. The idea that "Shimano is universally acknowledged to be smoother shifting" is pure nonsense.

My 35 YO Ergo shifts just as nicely as my 2020 Ultegra. Can’t say one is much better than the other.

The only reason Campagnolo are in trouble is because they don't much OE presence, and the reason they don't have OE presence is because virtually all bike production has left Europe and gone to Asia.

While this layoffs business doesn't look good, it's certainly not that Campagnolo are facing insurmountable odds to survival. They have options, I think:

1. They can find a way to get their products to where the bikes are made. Shimano and SRAM have a big leg up here. If not Asia production for Campy (but why not?), then maybe even robust Asia warehousing, though shipping from Europe to Asia and then shipping finished product from Asia back to EU and USA is going to add cost. We already know the luxury end of most markets is doing just fine, if flat, and projected to grow, so there's room to maneuver there.
2. Portugal has invested big, on the government level, into bike production. Portugal production has led the rankings in the EU for several years, and there is still bicycle manufacturing in Italy, Germany, Romania and Poland. One thing that has emerged in the post-COVID and Russia-Ukraine war era is an increasing EU awareness that they need to be self-sustaining. This is something that Campagnolo could take advantage of. It's something of an embarrassment, IMO, that every top model Italian bike is not spec'd with Campagnolo, but there are indications that this could change, giving Campagnolo, again, room to maneuver.
3. USA tariffs could shift the pricing maths in favor of EU production, coupled with a projected return to stability for the bike market in general, following this recent period of retail inventory corrections, foreign exchange losses, and high operating costs.

The big question is whether Campy is capitalized sufficiently to not only weather the next year or two, but to invest in developing areas they have undoubtedly neglected or misjudged. I'm not forecasting anything one way or the other-- this is definitely a bad sign for Campy-- I'm just recognizing that's there's room for more than just doom and gloom in the prognosis.

Campagnolo was OEM on bikes and very relevant in the marketplace in 2015. Their decline has been in the last 10 years. It has been steep, but only in the last 10 years.

It was OEM then, sure, but it was limited. Limited in how many bike models were spec'd, how many of those bikes were carried by shops, and limited in pricing tiers.

It's been limited going back years before 2015 too.

I have seen this comment a few times over the last handful of years.
Are components unable to go from Europe to Asia? Of course components can go from Europe to Asia.

And even if it is less convenient, the big issue is that Campy doesn't even offer entry level components or mid. All the bikes spec'd with Claris, Sora, Tiagra, Cues, Apex, Microshift Sword, etc aren't even able to have a Campy option.

Campy chose to leave the entry market. You can't spec product that doesn't exist.