The figurehead: Lezyne founder Micki Kozuschek

Manufacturing in Asia, company culture from Europe
"No lose face", company founder and Lezyne boss Micki Kozuschek makes an announcement about his company right at the start of the factory tour. The production plants are based in Taichung/Taiwan, but the company culture avoids a notorious peculiarity when doing business in China and Taiwan. It is important to Kozuschek that people at Lezyne are allowed to make mistakes at work and then stand by them. The work ethos of simply sitting out mistakes or keeping quiet in order to save face has no place in his environment. Employees would either love working for him, or they wouldn't get on with the company culture and would quickly turn their backs on the company again.

In the assembly department, employees assemble the Lezyne parts in an insulated facility cooled down by air conditioning

Prominent prologue
Kozuschek's first stop in the global bicycle industry was the launch of the bicycle manufacturer Maxcycles. The native German then founded the Truvativ brand, which achieved a wide reach in the aftermarket and OEM sector until he sold this company to Sram in 2004. After a two-year sabbatical from the bicycle industry, Kozuschek launched Lezyne in 2007. "Engineered Design" was not only the claim from the very beginning, the products consistently impress with their high-quality design and manufacturing quality.

This is where the pumps are produced in the final assembly - the components come from suppliers

Important headquarters in Taiwan
Lezyne's headquarters are located in San Luis Obispo, California, while production takes place in Taiwan. The plant in Taichung works according to the Toyota principle: The components manufactured by "subcontractors" are delivered at short notice and only stored for a short time, as production is "just in time". As a result, there are only two CNC machines in the factory, as the subcontractors do the lion's share of the milling work.

Around 120 to 150 Lezyne employees (the workforce varies depending on the season) work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at the factory in Taichung. In addition to assembling the supplied components, quality control and part of product development are also based in Taichung. The Taiwanese production site also serves as a logistics center for shipping products to national distributors. A good working atmosphere is also ensured: the production facility in the company building in Taichung is air-conditioned, which is a great advantage in the very hot and humid Taiwanese summer and an employee-friendly rarity among Taiwan's numerous bicycle companies.

The finished Lezyne parts are also packaged at the company headquarters in Taichung...

Europe as the most important market
Europe is Lezyne's main sales market with 50 percent, followed by Asia with 20 percent, with the rest of the parts going to the USA. Lezyne achieves an annual turnover of around 50 million USD. Kozuscheck also reveals another figure: around half a million pumps leave the factory in Taiwan every year.

... as well as stored and shipped to around 56 national distributors

And the company name
Incidentally, the company name Lezyne is a high-proof creation: according to the company founder, when coming up with the name - drinks and cocktails are said to have stimulated creativity - the ideas always revolved around the term "design". With the onset of a slightly alcohol-induced babble, the final "Lezyne" was then distilled.

www.lezyne.com