With no foreign holidays, more free time, and an appreciation of being able to get out in the fresh air, bike companies are booming
Translated by Thomas Ansell
Frisian cycle-shops are busier than ever, and that is having a positive knock-on effect for bicycle manufacturers, including Accell Group in Heerenveen. As reported by the Omrop Fryslân.
A rush of demand from bike shops has meant that the Accell Group factories are busier than ever. CEO of Accell, Ton Anbeek, says: “the Coronavirus has put bicycles back on the agenda world-wide. Purchasing numbers are incredibly high, and it’s coming from all countries, not just the Netherlands. Expectations that people will have to holiday in their own countries is a driver, certainly. This has meant that we expect a smaller negative affect from the virus outbreak this year; because we had to dial down production earlier in 2020.”
The biggest issue for the company at the moment is movement of its bike frames that are made in China. “We’ve had a problem with getting frames here since Chinese new year. Since China was shut down, our supply of frames was stopped. So, we had to lower our production capacity, but we are now luckily back up to about 60% capacity. But I don’t expect us to reach 100% capacity before the end of the year”, said Anbeek.
A lowering of production has meant that Accell Group have had to start working more flexibly with their staff: not all can be present in the factory at the same time. “This week we’ve started with production of a new bakfiets”, said Anbeek, “we expect that this production will create work for about 20 to 30 people”.
Image via PublicDomainPictures
