Cycleurope France Cuts Production

ROMILLY-SUR-SEINE, France – At this time of the year it is very common for Cycleurope in France to shut down its production in weekly shifts. But this year, the situation is different. The trade unions suspected it, the employees feared it and it was confirmed by production manager Lorenzo Libran (photo); since the beginning of January Cycleurope’s Romilly facility is operating only two out of every four weeks. This 50% production cut will be maintained up to mid March.

Due to the current economic slowdown the 50% production cut caused a lot of turmoil among the Cycleurope employees. In the past they have gone through more difficult periods of their employer.
On questions asked by the regional French newspaper L’est-éclair and in order to put and end to all the rumours, Cycleurope France management stated that the company has implemented a production cut but remains firmly in business.

Not to dramatize

According to sales and marketing manager Bruno Gazet, Cycleurope is currently more suffering from rumours than from the market situation. “Our 2008 results have been the best since many years and it took quite an effort last year to meet all deliveries in time. At this moment in time we don’t have any indication that our 2009 sales will drop significantly.”

“Last January we had to make some provisions,” clarifies production manager Lorenzo Libran. “Production was slowed down since the beginning of January to a 50% level. However, we always have a production cut in the off season period from January - March. Our inventory level had reached its capacity so we had to slow down the production. With these precautionary measures we show our flexibility to the market and anticipate on the market developments.”
 
Cycleurope France management is very positive about the outlook for 2009. “Bike sales usually start at the end of March,” assured Bruno Gazet. “We anticipate on the rise in demand with the introduction of new innovative products like popular e-Bikes, but we also participate in bike rental projects run by big cities. Especially these rental projects will incite people to use bikes instead of their car and that will lead to a growing sale of bicycles.”

Source: L’est-éclair

Source: Lest-clair