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Can you tell us the history of the company?
The family business Elvedes (pronounce as El vé des) was founded in 1965, when our father Lourens van der Spruijt began trading in moped parts. Over the years the company was more focused on moped and bicycle cables for the aftermarket and OEM. The Elvedes brand became well-known in the Benelux countries. In 2002, we, Lourens sons Carl and Peter (twin brothers), took over the business. Nowadays Elvedes is offering a comprehensive range of cables, brake pads, discs, hydraulic hoses, bearings, pulley wheels and also bottom brackets have been added to the range for 2018.
What are you ultimately trying to achieve?
We are trying to offer a well-organised total package of quality products for the aftermarket, focusing on the needs of the dealer and his workshop. Listening to our customers is the best way for improvement and further development of the brand.
What gives you an edge over other brands in the industry?
Availability of products is very important for our customers. For this reason our UK distributor The Cycle Division is stocking the complete Elvedes range in their warehouse for next-day delivery. With the short delivery times that we offer, it is fairly easy to maintain stock levels for our distributors.
What innovations in the industry are exciting you at the moment?
The cable routing of frames is getting more and more extreme. Internal cable routing often causes a lot of resistance when changing gear. Flexible gear wires offer a solution for internal cable routing through the frame. Elvedes offers a flexible 49 wire pre-stretched stainless steel inner cable as a problem-solver for gear and brake, instead of the standard 19-wire inner cable.
What does the future hold for Elvedes?
I think the future for Elvedes holds a growing market share within Europe, with focus on workshop solutions. Much can be sold over the Internet, but not the workshop this is an ever-increasingly important part of the IBD.
