SRAM Catching Up with RockShox’ Production and Delivery Problems

CHICAGO, USA (October 1) - What's happening with RockShox? That's the key question in Europe at the moment. Rumours are building as delivery problems are rising. Bike Europe interviewed SRAM Corp. CEO Stan Day for its October edition. His frank remarks including an apology for the current delivery problems, present a detailed overview of what's currently happening at RockShox to deal with these problems. He explained: "The management group at RockShox pre-acquisition had scheduled to change the tube finishing process for model year 2003. The purpose was to improve quality, lower cost and consolidate operations. We transitioned the tube finishing process in June and ran into unexpected delays. We maintained our strong quality procedures and addressed the root causes of the manufacturing issues. The supply capacity for tubes was up to our targets at the end of August. We have been working through our past due shipments during September and expect to be fully caught up by October." "During this period of limited supply," Stan Day continued: "We prioritised our OEM customers, and this has resulted in shortages to distributors. We are however currently working a improving spare parts supply across Europe, a key complaint from the dealers. We apologize to all of our customers for these delay's and are confident that significant improvements will be made when this process transition is complete." With regard to the availability of the RockShox products Stan Day also stated: "Production is back on track. We expect that past due shipments will be complete by mid-October and we will be operating under standard lead times going forward." Bike Europe's October edition (publication date October 25) will feature the complete interview in which Stan Day also answers questions about the distribution of the RockShox products and the restoring of the credibility of the US suspension supllier after the recent recall and patents problems.(JO)