BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
The talk of the Taipei trade show was the future of Schwinn/GT. Heavily in debt at Taiwanese factories, the company is causing many Taiwanese cycle trade insiders to have sleepless nights.
The president of Merida went public on the rumours that he would buy Schwinn/GT to gain a better foothold in the US. He said these rumours were wrong.
The closure of Schwinn/GT in Europe with debts of £10m and with no buyer on the cards worries many Taiwanese cycle suppliers as they believe it indicates severe cash flow problems with the US parent company.
Without refinancing, Schwinn/GT may be on a knife-edge, they believe.
But many Taiwanese insiders believe the global bike business has caught ‘dot.com disease but without the dot.com’: securing funding is not a success story, making profits is the real name of the game.
