Press releases

PubliBike to become a limited company based in Fribourg

PubliBike, Switzerland’s largest bike sharing service provider, will become a public limited company on 1 January 2014. The new PubliBike Ltd head office will be based in Fribourg.

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PubliBike will have a new structure from 2014. As of 1 January, the bike sharing service provider will be converted into a public limited company and operate as an independent subsidiary of PostBus. The Board of Directors will comprise the following PostBus executives: Daniel Schlatter (Head of Marketing & Strategy), Retus Ruffner (Head of Market East), Roland Kunz (Head of Finance) and Lorenz Lehmann (Head of Development and Mobility Solutions). Fabrice Lago, the current Director of PubliBike, will be appointed as the CEO of PubliBike Ltd.

PubliBike will also transfer its head office from Berne to Fribourg. Employees will move into their new offices at Route des Arsenaux 15 before the end of December. The offices in Berne and Lausanne will be closed. Fribourg was chosen because the city’s bilingual culture and geographical location on the border between French and German-speaking Switzerland make it ideally suited to the profile of PubliBike.

More responsive to the market

PubliBike was founded in 2011 by PostBus and its partners Swiss federal railways and Rent a Bike. PostBus Switzerland Ltd took the first step towards making PubliBike a public limited company in April 2012 when it acquired the Lausanne-based company velopass GmbH, then the largest bike sharing service provider in Switzerland. This made PostBus the leader in Switzerland’s bike sharing market. The second step followed in April 2013 when PubliBike and velopass merged to form the PubliBike brand offering a uniform national bike hire scheme. PubliBike currently has over 20,000 registered users.

The conversion of PubliBike into a public limited company will increase its flexibility in the rapidly-changing bike sharing market by giving the company its own structures. All 14 members of staff will keep their jobs and have received new employment contracts. SBB will remain the location and marketing partner, while Rent a Bike Ltd will continue as operating partner.

112 stations throughout Switzerland

PubliBike is represented throughout Switzerland with 112 stations and over 1,100 bikes and e-Bikes. 80 percent of the stations are located in Western Switzerland. Lausanne has the largest PubliBike network, with 23 stations. The largest network in German-speaking Switzerland is in Berne (8 stations). As for Ticino, PubliBike is so far only represented in the Lugano region (10 stations).

Additional stations are due to be opened next year. PubliBike will also be a partner of the «Swiss Pass» public transport chip card scheduled to be launched by the Public Transport Union (VöV) in mid-2015. Public transport customers using this card will also be able to borrow PubliBike bikes. Unlike serviced bike rental, customers can rent bikes or e-Bikes from self-service stations around the clock.

The service is requested by municipalities or companies. PostBus is a great believer in the idea of bike sharing as part of an attractive public transport service. It is convinced that this brand new service meets a growing need in the Swiss market.

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