DUARTE, USA – Dahon, the world’s leading folding bike producer, announced a further sales growth of 24 % crashing the previous year’s record high with a total 2005 production of 285,000 units. To ensure further future growth the “American-Taiwanese” maker announced via press release: “2006 is shaping up to be another big year for us with factory expansion occurring in Europe and China in response to both consumer and vendor demand.”
Wait a minute - factory expansion in Europe? Yes, Dahon is already working hard on this project. Dahon is establishing a production of folding bikes in the Czech Republic. An existing Czech production partner educated by Dahon will produce European-made folding bikes.
First hints for this step were already collected by Bike Europe on last year’s Bike Brno show in the Czech Republic. It seems to be the company strategy to serve Europe closer-to-market production/assembling. That makes also sense considering EU anti-dumping tariffs on bicycles made in China (next to the Taiwan plant, Dahon has factories in China and Macau).
Aside strong international sales growth including conquering new markets in Eastern Europe and South America Dahon is also pointing on its success in China. According to Hon his company is now “one of China’s largest bicycle distributors”. The folding bike expert has a network of 70 Chinese wholesalers serving over 2,000 dealers. Furthermore the fresh A-Team member has over 100 Dahon branded bike shops in this market. The success in China explains also the factory expansion in China. This is not made for bicycle export to Europe. Europe might very soon be co-served by Dahon-bikes made in the Czech Republic. (JB)
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