Raleigh Ending Bike Production In England
MARCH 19, 2002 -- NOTTINGHAM, England (BRAIN)--Raleigh will stop assembling bicycles in the United Kingdom at the end of the year and dropped plans to build a new factory there.
The decision ends more than a century of Raleigh production in Nottingham, where Raleigh built what was then the world's largest bicycle factory in 1896.
"The continuing reduction in the cost of cycles imported from the Far East, and the increased price sensitivity of the U.K. market, is making it difficult to compete effectively and profitably against imported, finished bicycles," Phillip Darnton, Raleigh's chairman, said in a press statement.
The company produced about 320,000 bikes per year in England. Some 280 factory workers will lose their jobs at the end of the year, but Raleigh will keep about 100 people in administration, sales, marketing and distribution.
Thought you'd want to know.
Bob Freeman