BRANDS


NORCO RETURNS


After three years away from the British market, Canadian mountain bike brand Norco is returning to UK shores, exclusively distributed by ZyroFisher. Daniel Blackham attended the launch event to see the 2023 range


T


he Norco story can be traced back to 1964 and its humble beginnings operating out of a chicken coop in British Columbia.


Starting out as Northern Cycle Industries, an assembly business, the brand quickly transitioned into manufacturing, shortening its name to Norco so it could fit on the down tube of its bikes. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s it was heavily involved


in road cycling as well as motocross and BMX, distributing brands such as Bell Helmets and Shimano. In 1983, the company became the first to develop a mountain bike for the Canadian marketplace called ‘The Bigfoot’. Mountain bikes started to demand more of Norco’s


attention through the 1990s with a cross-country race team and development of its full suspension bikes, the Rampage


50 | April 2023


and the FTS, laying the foundations for where the brand is today more than 30 years later. Last month, ZyroFisher invited a number of retailers to


celebrate the return of the Norco brand to the UK with an exclusive launch event at Halton Turner Brewing Company in Birmingham.


Returning to its roots Throughout its history, Norco has segmented its offering beyond mountain bikes to include disciplines such as road, gravel and urban.


But looking ahead, the company is focusing its efforts on what it knows best. “In Canada, and globally, we have been known as a brand that does a lot,” explained Chris Hennessey, international sales manager at Norco.


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