Raleigh sold to Dutch rival Accell

Classic bike company Raleigh was sold to Dutch rival Accell at the end of last month in a deal valuing the 125-year-old company at £62.2 million. The firm, which was founded in Nottingham, will complement Accell’s range of brands, which include Batavus and Sparta. The deal, which still needs the approval of regulators, is likely to net Raleigh chief executive Alan Finden-Crofts a multi-million-pound windfall; he is one of the largest shareholders after leading a management buy-out in 2001. Raleigh began life when Sir Frank Bowden bought an interest in a small bike company in the city’s Raleigh Street in 1887. The company, which sold 850,000 bikes last year, still designs bikes in Nottingham and employs more than 100 people there, but the bikes have been made in the Far East since 2002. Raleigh was once the biggest bicycle maker in the world, employing 8,000 people after the Second World War.