BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Q4 sales for Montreal-based Dorel Industries Inc. were $323.7m, an increase of 34 percent over the same period last year. Profits increased by 42 percent quarter on quarter.
In 2003, Dorel had sales of $1.2bn, an increase of over 17 percent from $992m in 2002.
Dorel acquired Pacific Cycle, owner of the Schwinn, Mongoose and GT brands, in January for $310m.
In 2003, Dorel acquired Ampafrance, a French child-seat distributor and Carina, a Canadian/American maker of ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture.
According to the United Steelworkers of America union, Dorel shut the Carina plant after workers voted to become unionised. The union has filed a complaint against Dorel at the Ontario Labour Relations Board and has created a ‘Dorel watch’ section on its website.
Execs from Pacific Cycle remain unfazed by the Carina controversy, believing the Pacific Cycle business model – importing rather than domestic US manufacturing – is closely allied to the Dorel business model and that there is no risk of job losses at Pacific Cycle.
http://www.uswa.ca/…/carina.htm
KERRY:
Marathon-bicyclist and would-be US president, John Kerry, met steelworkers in Ohio and said:
"I’m not going to stand up in front of you and say I can stop every job from being outsourced. But I’ll tell you what I can do. I can fight to make sure you have a fair playing field. I’ll enforce…anti-dumping provisions."
