The Austrian children's bike manufacturer woom, based in Klosterneuburg, is taking another step towards bringing the production of its bikes for the European sales markets to Europe: Woom bikes - i.e. the classic woom 1 to 6 children's bikes - have been rolling off the production line at a plant owned by the German company Sprick Cycle in Świebodzin in the south of Poland since the beginning of the year.

Also Woom children's mountain bikes from Poland

In Sprick, woom says it has found a reliable partner with a long tradition in bicycle construction. Sprick provides Woom with its own warehouses and production halls at the plant in Świebodzin. In two production lines and with the help of two highly automated spoking machines, 115,000 Woom bikes are expected to roll off the production line by the end of 2021. That is just under 40 percent of total annual production. Preparations for the Polish final production of woom OFF mountain bikes are also in full swing.

"Advancing automation, but also the downward trend among suppliers to the automotive and aviation industries, are opening up opportunities for the production and assembly of bicycles in Europe," says woom Managing Director Guido Dohm: "Until now, the bike industry has sourced its components almost exclusively from specialists in Asia. Now it is possible to develop and produce with suppliers in Europe. We see this as a huge opportunity for woom," says Dohm.

Manufacturing in Europe brings a number of other advantages for Woom: The proximity to the company headquarters in Austria makes it easier to get in touch with manufacturers directly and personally - be it for specialist, technical coordination, quality assurance, method training or production planning and control.

Depending on the season, the plant currently employs around 300 people, 80 of whom work exclusively for woom. And capacities are to be continuously expanded. "In the future, we will rely on high-tech automation for the construction of the aluminium frames, as we know it from car body production in the automotive industry," explains Dohm.

Corona crisis shows importance of production sites in Europe

The importance of having production sites in Europe was demonstrated not least during the coronavirus crisis: production facilities in Asia were partially shut down due to the lockdown; transport routes became less reliable. To this day, the bicycle industry is suffering from supply bottlenecks for common components with negative effects on production as a whole, often resulting in long waiting times for customers. Delivery times for individual components have become extremely long: in some cases from 90 to 600 days.

"The collaboration with Sprick Cycle in Poland is an important step for us towards our major goal: producing woom bikes for European sales markets in Europe," explains Woom Managing Director Dohm. Although the production of bicycles in the Asian region will continue to play an important role for the Woom growth markets of North America and Asia and will also be further expanded, production in Europe is more expedient for the European sales markets.

woombikes.com