The cycle industry speaks to BikeBiz about the effect expensive imports are having on Britains manufacturers
Costly imports forced by a weak pound could benefit UK manufacturers, according to Britain’s bike trade.“Us UK manufacturers have finally got a real price advantage over importers this year,” Crud MD Pete Tompkins told BikeBiz.
Fibrax MD John O’Brien said: “The cycle industry has a long history within the UK, however the past 20 years has seen UK manufactured products and businesses fall to all but a few. The drive to purchase from overseas has often been driven by cost, not quality.”
Brompton marketing manager Emerson Roberts said: “Importing bikes and accessories manufactured in Asia inevitably leads to higher UK RRPs when Sterling is as low as it currently is.”
Roberts warned: “We are not entirely insulated from the weakness of the Pound, as many of our parts and commodities are priced in US dollars and Euros; but foreign currency-denominated costs represent a minority of our direct costs, so the impact isn’t huge.”
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For more on the subject, including opinion from Pashley and Renthal, click here.
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