According to the Ziarul Financiar report Sport Mechanical Workshop is owned by the Italian investors Francesco Russo and Vittorio Olagnero, as well as their Romanian partner Laszlo Nyaradi. The new facility that’s next to regular bicycles is also to produce e-bikes will have an annual capacity of 1.5 million units, making it one of the biggest in Europe as Bike Europe reported last month.
The Ziarul Financiar report also says that Sport Mechanical Workshop “Currently assembles bicycles for French sports retail chain Decathlon in a rented space of 5,000m² in Timisoara. The new production hall which will be built in the city, will span over an area of 23,000m².”
Three investors
“The three investors Francesco Russo, Vittorio Olagnero and Laszlo Nyaradi have already obtained the land for the new factory and if everything goes according to plan, the construction of the new plant will begin next March,” claims Vincenzo Moderno, executive vice president of the Romanian-Italian Chamber of Commerce in the newspaper report. “Both banks and the investors/shareholders will provide the funds for this investment.”
Two assemblers for Decathlon
Next to Sport Mechanical Workshop, NextCity in Resita is a second company that assembles bikes for Decathlon in Romania. The Ziarul Financiar report states “Resite produces approximately 400,000 units annually for Decathlon. For 2018 NextCity reported a turnover of 28.8 million lei (6 million euro), slightly down on the previous year. 2019 results are expected to be in line with the last 3 years as a relatively good year, with a turnover similar to that of 2018.”
