PUKY 2.0: It’s people that make the brand

By Sibylle Dorndorf

Dual leadership sharing is a model for the future. The co-CEO structure is becoming increasingly popular, and not just in family-owned businesses. At PUKY, Britta Sieper and Marc K. Thiel have been running the company together since 2023 – with a clear “separation of powers”. Britta Sieper, Puky CEO since 2021, is responsible for the technical areas such as production, assembly, logistics and purchasing. Marc K. Thiel brings to the table his expertise in the areas of sales, marketing and administration.

They’re a charismatic duo. In April 2024, Britta Sieper was appointed to the board of the Zweirad-Industrie-Verband, Germany’s association for the bicycle industry. She thanked them for their faith in her, saying: “The bicycle brings people a lot of joy as well as healthy and eco-friendly mobility in a fascinating product.” A successful segue to our interview and the first topic of conversation:

Mobility has to be fun

Children are mobile from a very early age: between the ages of five and ten, they travel an average of 22 kilometres a day, while studies show that this figure rises to 30 kilometres for 14 to 17-year-olds! However, most of their journeys are made by car. This is changing. The mobility of young families is more geared towards alternative means of transport than ever before. Young parents are trying to give children the chance to get around independently as early as possible. Their first car or bicycle marks an important step towards a more self-determined life.

Britta Sieper: Exercise was and still is an important issue for children. Not just as a counterbalance to digital distractions. Changing lifestyles after the pandemic along with climate change have placed an even greater focus on a new, eco-friendly form of transport.

At PUKY, we’ve been focussing on children’s mobility and motor development for 75 years. Our products extend children’s range of movement. They gradually get faster and faster and what sticks in their minds are great experiences. This inspires children and encourages them to move. Children’s motor skills develop from the pushchair for one-year-olds to the bicycle for roughly 13-year-olds.

In general, you can say that families who enjoy being on the move and travelling together have the greatest influence on their little ones’ preferences. With our products, we offer them the chance to have lots of fun while on the move, even when they’re still in the very early stages of their development.

Sustainable, naturally

The aspect of sustainability in all its conceivable and feasible facets is increasingly determining customers’ decision whether or not to buy a product.

Britta Sieper: You have to look at the issue of sustainability from different angles. We manufacture in Germany and Europe, source a significant proportion of our materials from Europe and try to be close to our core markets. Quality is the be-all and end-all for us as a renowned brand. With special design and testing, we ensure that our products are safe and can withstand robust use by children. Not least in our own test laboratory, where we subject all products to a full mechanical check.

Marc K. Thiel: According to the surveys we’ve commissioned, quality and safety are still the two top arguments in favour of buying children’s bikes. It’s great that the PUKY brand ensures quality and safety, as demonstrated by how long our products last and by the high prices for second-hand bikes from PUKY. Our children’s bikes can easily be used by three generations of children, which means our models have a ten-year lifespan.

Innovative technology is inspiring

The pandemic and the climate debate have increased the significance of alternative means of transport. Sales of e-bikes also skyrocketed.

Marc K. Thiel: Children’s e-bikes make sense if the parents or grandparents ride an e-bike, too. On a family outing, the children are the “weakest link” so an e-bike for children certainly makes for a more shared experience. The trend and availability of e-bikes for children is still in its infancy, but demand and interest are growing rapidly. Our Eightshot “Loamer 24” is our latest development in the MTB sector and we presented it at Eurobike.

New brand communication with a strong message

The message “Ready for Life” signals that PUKY has more than “merely” the production of bikes in mind. This makes perfect sense, because children today face completely different challenges than in the past.

Marc K. Thiel: The new slogan “Puky – Ready for Life” is mainly intended to show that PUKY is ready for “real life”. We want to move away from the usual ideal, beautiful, colourful and carefree world of the advertising industry towards what we all really experience with our children on a daily basis – everyday life, with all its pitfalls and challenges. We’ve always reacted proactively to the latter. Be it by putting more reflectors on the bikes or by offering an automatic system in the LS Pro 18 Flowmatic for the first time ever. This bike can automatically shift to the next gear at a speed of 8 km/h and vice versa, without the child being distracted by having to change gear.

Beware of helicopter parents

The lifestyle of the parents also shapes that of the children. Obsessive helicopter parents won’t necessarily encourage the little ones’ desire for movement and freedom.

Marc K. Thiel: We know from 75 years’ experience in the field of child mobility that practising balance and movement guarantees that children become more self-confident and are better prepared to deal with potential dangers on the road. That’s why we recommend that young parents put children on a balance bike as early as possible and let them gain their own initial experience with regard to strength, speed, balance and, above all, fun. If a child can ride a balance bike safely and well, then switching to a real bicycle is inevitably easy and training wheels or stabilisers are hardly ever needed.

Participation and inclusion 

Children with special needs or restricted mobility can ride PUKY, too.

Britta Sieper: With its various products and geometries, PUKY has a range that suits many children. Children should feel safe on our products and should be able to handle the bicycle intuitively so they can focus on all the other things around them. Depending on the child’s individual needs, the saddle and handlebars can be adjusted, but developing a child’s sense of balance without the use of any pedals is also fostered.

A brand that stands for quality 

When buying the first bike for their child, parents pay attention to quality and the brand. PUKY bikes deliver a brand promise.

Marc K. Thiel: The PUKY brand promise remains unchanged. We still stand for lightweight, safe, state-of-the-art bikes of high quality and with a long service life. We’ve only dusted off the brand a bit, so to speak. Besides a modern logo, we’ve also adopted a new slogan – Ready for Life – which emphasises our product expertise in the everyday use of our vehicles.

And of course, the ever-faster changing nature of communication is also a very important topic for us here at PUKY. Besides Instagram, we’re also looking at TikTok and other platforms. We’re also discussing and analysing the topic of influencer marketing and focusing on maintaining direct contact with our customers and followers.

Changes in the retail sector

You’re unlikely to buy a children's bike online, but more likely to go to your trusted dealer.

Marc K. Thiel: We set great store by good partnerships with retailers and offer our partners POS material for their shops. Since May this year, we’ve been operating a pop-up store in Berlin Mitte, where we present the PUKY brand in a new, modern and minimalist way. We also use the store to hold retailer presentations and previews of new products, as well as to initiate discussion rounds with representatives from local politics or the Ministry of Transport. In future, we’re also going to offer our retailers shop-in-shop systems. We are focusing on brand cooperation at the POS and joint campaigns with committed retailers, because brick-and-mortar retailers are still our key partners when it comes to sales.

Material and production

New materials and the optimisation of production processes are not a mere sustainability issue.

Britta Sieper: We have a whole range of different production units. We now also use robots in some of our production cells; they work hand in hand in the overall frame production process. For us, flexibility is the answer to current market requirements. The design and use of materials are paramount to us. A lot’s happened in terms of materials in particular. The lightweight aluminium wheel segment in our range has grown significantly. We also use alternative materials for packaging and avoid using plastic wherever possible.

The gender discussion

To gender or not to gender? That is the question here.

Britta Sieper: Gender neutrality, yes! It’s important to have different colours in our range to suit the tastes of children and parents. Depending on the product in the range, there’s a colourful selection from light yellow to black. In keeping with the type of product and the product range.

Marc K. Thiel: Colours have to inspire everyone and we follow the trends that often emanate from the automotive or related industries. Then, of course, there are the classics, in our case the LRM balance bike in PUKY red. We use trendy colours and dare to try out new looks, such as very dark colours, and we use colourful decorative elements to give them a special appearance and style.

When it comes to customised bikes, our customers really like the fact that we can manufacture products in their colours. We get requests for special series – from major companies right down to sports clubs. Thanks to our own powder and paint shop, we have a unique selling point that provides us with countless options.

About the author:

Sibylle Dorndorf has been covering the toy industry for almost 30 years. Most recently, the trade journalist was editor-in-chief of the TOYS magazine family at the Göller Verlag publishing house, Baden-Baden, Germany. Her passion: companies that reinvent themselves, brands that position themselves credibly, people who have something to say and products with a future.