[CR] Ron Kitching & the Milremo Brand

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Ideale)

Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:48:16 +0200
From: "Amir Avitzur" <walawalaoxenfree@gmail.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] Ron Kitching & the Milremo Brand


Ron Kitching had a very flattering biography written about himself: "Ron Kitching: A Wheel in Two Worlds". Surprisingly, the book was very interesting and a good read.

He created the Milremo brand to get around distribution restrictions. If Philippe stems, for example, were being imported by someone else, he had Philippe build him a private label stem, which he could import under the "legitimate" distributor's nose.

Although he doesn't write this, the stems were probably identical except for the logo and the price. His preference for "cheap" imports obviously had some affect on the local brands of parts, frames and bicycles.

I am always surprised how much Milremo stuff I find in Israel. Seems like there was close relationship, not only between Kitching & Bertin, but also between Kitching/Bertin & Zeus ... but here I'm just speculating.

Amir Avitzur
R"G Israel