Universal Cycle Corporation Shift Focus to Road Race

BEIJING, China – Tony Martin was the first to win the overall red jersey in the inaugural Tour of Beijing, Asia’s first UCI World Tour professional road cycling race, which took place last week. For the first time this UCI event featured a road bike team sponsored by the bicycle manufacturer Universal Cycle Corporation (UCC).

The Guangzhou-based bicycle manufacturer UCC was jointly founded in 1990 together with Taiwan trading company Peak wheel and Co., Ltd. Today UCC claims to produce 450,000 bicycles per year with annual revenue 52.9 million euro.

Until now mountain bikes have always been the main category of growth in the company’s product portfolio. However, UCC’s clear presence and investment in the Tour of Beijing could be a sign of the company’s shifting strategy to more attention for road race.

A real move into road bikes could help more international expansion, given the brand’s distribution and visibility outside North East Asia is limited. UCC could even become the next bicycle manufacturer, in the same vein as Giant and Merida, to capitalize on its manufacturing-brand status by competing aggressively for market share in emerging territories like India, Indonesia and South East Asia.

Cam Whiting, Cycling iQ