There was a time when bicycles were still made in America, and while some high-end models are still produced here, most production of bikes has gone to China. It doesn’t look like bike production will ever return to American shores, but soon the Chinese might be facing competition from India.
Hero Cycles this week signed an agreement with Walmart to supply bicycles to the world’s largest retailer. This could see sales double to 10 million units annually by 2015, and potentially keep the price of lower end bikes reasonable. Hero Cycles currently retail for around $200 a piece.
It is worth noting that less than 20 years ago Walmart, which is the largest seller of bicycles in the United States, had sourced a large part of its bicycles from Huffy’s factory in Ohio. Walmart’s demands to Huffy to cut costs resulted in the closure of the plants in the U.S., and in turn led to the retailer looking to China for low-cost producers of bicycles.
Now Hero Cycles has opened an open in Denver, Colorado and hired Kevin Lamar, former president of Schwinn Bicycles, to run the U.S. operations. It is the new office in Denver that will work with Walmart. So while it won’t bring Huffy or Schwinn back, this could be a new era for Walmart and bicycles.
[Via Business-Standard: Walmart to sell Hero bicycles worldwide]