OEM
Inside Guide | Giant China’s new Kunshan factory
From its roots as a Taiwanese Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in 1972, Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd broke ground in China 20 years later, when it opened its first manufacturing facility in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, on October 8, 1992.
Shadow optic | the manufacturing partner paradox
Who really makes your bike? It is a simple enough question. Country of origin has traditionally been a touchy subject for brands that rely on Asia-based ‘manufacturing partners’, let alone revealing who the partners are. Discovering the factory behind the brand is a stubbornly topical pastime amongst bicycle consumers. What’s all the fuss about?
Marginal gains | Giant Bicycle’s China yield play
From rather humble beginnings as a maker of bicycle products for other brands, to becoming the world’s largest manufacturer of bicycles, Giant Manufacturing Co Ltd has pioneered global brand development in the bicycle industry. From the outside, it might appear that Giant has done it all, and has it all.
Time warp | weird world of bicycle product cycles
So long, November. As cycling consumers finalise their Christmas 2011 shopping list of bikes and gadgets, the bicycle industry’s Product Managers have returned from Taichung, Taiwan, after ordering parts for the bikes those same consumers may buy in 2013. Welcome to the weird world of the bicycle industry product cycle.
Princes, thieves and make-believe | Pinarello fights for its name
‘Chinarello’ has become the lead character in a new online fantasy world where eager players can select a favourite bicycle hero, dress him with a personalized costume – or leave him in default stealth black – then acquire tools (called “components” in this game) that give their hero increasing mobility as they navigate an increasing … Continue reading
Taiwan’s quality strategy | why your $3,000 bicycle comes from China
Any attentive cyclist riding Melbourne’s Beach Road regularly in recent years would have noticed two things; there are a lot more people cycling, and; there are a lot more people cycling on nice bikes. It would appear that, in order for leisure riders to truly express themselves as cyclists, a quality composite bicycle is de … Continue reading
Vertical limit | surviving compression fatigue
Consumers of cycling products have been taken for quite a ride during the last two decades. Bicycle brands, their distributors and retailers, demonstrated a remarkable endurance and capacity to sustain a profitable, trust-based supply chain model that ultimately could not resist a swell in capitalistic desire urged forward by the confluence of global trade re-structuring … Continue reading
Vertical limit | what just happened?
The emergence of e-commerce in the bicycle market was an affront to almost every aspect of an industry business model that had for years thrived on handshakes, muffin-toting sales representatives and the seductive embrace of high margins. Though online stores had essentially evolved in full public view, a majority of the bicycle industry’s distributors and … Continue reading
Vertical limit | 10 years on, the first cracks appear
Year 2001. Taiwanese OEM production hummed along, retail prices were buoyant, and cycling was enjoying an upswing in popularity across the Asia-Pacific region. However, as the new millennium’s first decade matured, so too did a trio of inter-related trends that would upset the bicycle industry’s delicate ecosystem and threaten to explode into a full-blown zero-sum … Continue reading
Vertical limit | the long and short of bicycle manufacturing
Free-market capitalism, a cycling boom and supply-chain protectionism made the 1990’s a financial boon for bicycle brands, their distributors and retailers. The highly profitable business model of selling bicycles manifested in scaled-up physical supply nodes designed to cope with increasing volumes and demand. It was a comfortable situation for all.
