BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
The founder of Tree Bicycle, Sam Schulte, has an insightful interview over on BMX Union on the ups and downs associated with domestic manufacturing.
Schulte, who had been working with various machine shops in the US until recently to produce items such as sprockets and stems, tells the 20-inch specialist site: "Delays have caused financial problems that we have struggled with the whole time we have been doing business. Recently, we had a manufacturer go out of business and left us hanging with stuff that they owed us from last summer, so that’s getting on to be a year old on product we are waiting on."
Operating the business on a wafer thin margin, Schulte answers back to those accusing his firm of ‘selling out’, explaining that in the current economy his ‘dream’ of domestic manufacturing simply isn’t viable.
Schulte explains how missed deadlines were causing major financial strains, telling the website: "It’s hard to find a machinist to do what you need for the prices and make it work. A lot of times you need to get machinists to give you a special price and they are really not making any money, and that causes product not getting done on time, and that’s why a lot of brands have been moving over to Taiwan. Taiwan factories can afford to give us the price we need and get it done in time to help the customer in the end. So that’s why we have decided to move over there."
To read the full article, click here.
