LILLE, France - One of the best known Decathlon executives in the bicycle industry, Didier Morelle has announced his departure from the French retailer. In the past decades, he became a well known face in the international bicycle industry, holding various positions at Europe's largest bicycle retailer, lastly as bike procurement director.
BUDAPEST, Hungary - After securing the intellectual property of insolvent Hagen Bikes AS the Estonian Springdrive is relocating the cargobike production and sales to its wholly-owned Hungarian D2C e-bike manufacturer Blurby Kft.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - Schwalbe announced yesterday the strategic realigning of its production and will manufacture all tyres and tubes exclusively in Vietnam in the future. The background to the decision is the development and tense situation in the bicycle industry. Instead of long-term orders, orders are almost exclusively placed spontaneously. "As a result, it is currently no longer possible to plan ahead to meet demand at two parallel production sites," explains Frank Bohle, CEO of Schwalbe in a company statement.
LYNGE, Denmark - Since January 1st, 2023, all Argon 18 bikes destined for the European market have been assembled at the company's European headquarters in Denmark. The Canadian brand is also broadening its retail network by offering direct to retail sales in the UK. Other European markets are expected to follow.
DAUN, Germany - Despite naming its relatively young e-bike brand HoheAcht after the region in Germany where it is based, bike supplier Technibike GmbH has decided to abandon its production facility in Staßfurt, Germany and move to Eastern Europe - more precisely Bulgaria.
In recent years an increasing number of bicycle companies have opted for close to market production in Europe. Spurred on by the need for a consistent supply chain following issues during the pandemic, investments in European manufacturing continue to grow. As noted in this online magazine, Eastern Europe is becoming popular with Lithuania, Poland and Romania all enticing new investments from bicycle manufacturers. But not only here, Germany, France and Portugal are taking efforts to step up 'Made in Europe' bicycle production.
SHANGHAI, China - E-bike drive system manufacturer Ananda is currently stepping up its activities in Europe which will result in the opening of a fully automatic production facility in Hungary. "We want to improve the supply chain with production in Europe," Ananda president Daniel Zhuo told Bike Europe.
NEW YORK, USA - When the pandemic started in March 2020 the US bicycle business was fully import dependent. 95% of all bicycles sold in the country were primarily coming from China. In other words, the US bicycle business was completely dependent on globalisation and the global supply chain. But "the golden age of globalisation is ending," fears US market specialist Jay Townley.
Being able to respond even better and faster to the needs of the rapidly growing market was the main goal of the relocation of KMC Chain Europe to Heerenveen in the Netherlands. At the new location, which is more than twice as large, the originally Taiwanese company has made significant efficiency improvements.
MAASTRICHT, The Netherlands - Will globalisation come to an end because of the various supply crises? Professor Bart Vos doesn't believe so: "Reshoring is mainly geopolitical mood-making." Bike Europe spoke to him about the state of affairs and current developments in supply chain management.
GOTHENBURG, Sweden - Swedish e-bike manufacturer, Ecoride, is relocating its e-bike production from Poland to a new factory in Gothenburg, Sweden. Alongside reshoring the factory, a deputy CEO has been appointed to oversee the company's growth.
MILTON KEYNES, UK - In 2020 and with Brexit looming, e-bike manufacturer, Volt, took the decision to reshore its production from China to home soil in the UK. Two years, and a global pandemic later, has the moved paid off? Bike Europe caught up with co-founder James Metcalfe.
TIMISOARA, Romania - German Corratec is the next in the industry to start bicycle production in Romania. On 6 August the company celebrated the grand opening of its new production facility in Timișoara.
FRANKFURT, German - In the first half of 2022 e-bike and bicycle sales in Germany nearly matched the record levels of 2021. Despite inflation, supply chain problems and the war in Ukraine, the German industry association ZIV is very content with the first half results. "However a recent development of the past few weeks is that we see a depressed consumer demand," said ZIV MD Burkhard Stork today at the industry discussion ahead of the opening of Eurobike.
ÁGUEDA, Portugal - EU-funded close-to-market bicycle production in Portugal is continuing to gain momentum. According to the national bicycle industry association ABIMOTA, the sales value in the first two months of this year increased year-on-year by almost 50% to nearly €110 million.
The current situation caused by COVID-19 has created a great opportunity for manufacturers of mechanically welded structures within the European Union.
PARIS, France - It is hard to imagine, but up until the 1980's, France had a flourishing bicycle industry. The country was hit hard by the production relocation to low wage countries since the 1990's. The French government now wants to turn the tide. It has launched a series of initiatives to put the e-bike and bicycle industry back on the map.
HEERENVEEN, the Netherlands - To facilitate a growing flexibilisation on the expanding e-bike and bicycle market, KMC Chain Europe, will relocate its warehouse and offices to a new facility this summer.
MILAN, Italy - Pirelli has started producing its cycling tyres in the Bollate factory based nearby Milan. The facility has undergone a period of modernisation and an overhaul process to accommodate the production of Pirelli Cycling's top-of-the-range lines.
ANADIA, Portugal - An all-new e-bike production facility with a capacity of up to 50,000 units annually, has started production in Portugal. Based in the middle of the Portugal Bike Value, Bikap presents itself as 'carbon neutral' factory.
BORRALHA, Portugal - Gil Nadais, the secretary general of industry association ABIMOTA shared outstanding export figures for 2021 during a visit of Portugal's National Agency for Innovation (ANI).
