BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Dahon California, Inc., self-proclaimed as "the world leader in portable folding bicycles" has completed a move to a new factory in Shenzhen, China.
This situated on a 17 000m2 site with 14 000m2 of floor space.
Dahon president and folding bike pioneer Dr. David Hon said:
“Growing demand for our products had really strained the capacity of our former factory. Now we have the space we need to increase production capacity and streamline our entire production process. We’ll be implementing ISO production standards early next year so this move allows us to really focus on process engineering. Another big benefit is that we are now much closer to our parts suppliers.”
In addition to a bicycle assembly line, the factory is equipped with steel and aluminium frame production lines and stamping equipment for Dahon’s patented folding mechanisms.
Both high-end and low-end Dahon’s will be produced at the new factory, which employs 250.
Production capacity for assembled bicycles is 10 000 a month and 20 000 a month for frames. Frames produced at Dahon’s China factory are also supplied to Dahon’s production bases in Taiwan and Macau, as well as for OEM factories.
Dahon was started in 1982 and is now the world’s biggest manufacturer of folding bikes.
In the UK, the lower-end Dahon’s are available through Raleigh and Madison, under the names Phillips and Ridgeback respectively.
Dahon’s global sales are expanding at a rate of 25 percent a year, said UK importer Mark Bickerton of Cyclemotion, adding that the new factory would benefit UK stockists:
"The immediate impact for the UK market will be reduced lead times on frame manufacture and more research and development of new products."
