Conventional Dutch bicycle manufacturing disappears from the Netherlands

This summer season, the final bikes from the Batavus and Sparta manufacturers will roll off the manufacturing line within the Netherlands. The dad or mum firm Accell is scuffling with debt and attempting to cut back manufacturing prices by shifting work to Hungary and Turkey.

These two manufacturing facilities can be lowered to 1 manufacturing unit in Heerenveen. Mass manufacturing will make method for modern, high-tech bikes, Accell says. Along with the lack of 150 jobs, the manufacturing of two conventional Dutch bicycle manufacturers will finish.

The truth that the manufacturing of bicycles makes Friesland a moisture software for Accell worker Wieger de Jong, who has been gathering Batavus bicycles for over thirty years. “That makes me unhappy and disgusted. I feel it is a disgrace that we do not make the well-known Dutch bikes right here anymore. That belongs to our personal nation.”

De Jong turned his bed room into an actual bike museum with a powerful assortment of motorbike trinkets. “I am a real Batavian, which is a unique blood kind than the Spartans. ” After the summer season, De Jong can proceed working at Accell.

Within the late nineteenth century, security bicycles, with two wheels of the identical measurement and a series, had been extremely popular in Europe. Dutch manufacturers similar to Fongers, Gazelle and a little bit later Batavus and Sparta are benefiting significantly from the rising demand. That outcome for our personal nation would get a lift if bicycles couldn’t be imported within the First World Struggle.

Whereas the bike is turning into increasingly enjoyable within the surrounding nations, in flat Holland the bike the place you sit correctly may be very standard. However the market is altering: the Nineteen Sixties had been dominated by unions. So Batavus contains completely different manufacturers. This consolidation of manufacturers continued within the Nineties, when Accell purchased Batavus and Sparta. Gazelle can be a part of the Pon automotive import.

The corona pandemic can also be a bumpy street for the bike trade. Firstly, the restrictions in public transport result in an enormous demand for electrical bikes. If that demand falls, bike sellers can be left with large inventories. A number of producers are entering into hassle, together with Accell. In 2022, the corporate will fall into American palms and must reorganize.

So the evolution of bicycle manufacturing is a course of that takes many years. “Frames and different components are made abroad,” mentioned Kees Bakker of the Cyclists’ Union. “Till now, gathering, spraying and threading paws was a typical Dutch job, however that’s now disappearing.”

However the Netherlands remains to be a biking nation, Bakker thinks. feedback are then exported.”

This doesn’t imply that biking tradition will disappear, Bakker thinks. “The infrastructure for biking continues. Take a look at Components 1: public transport bikes are extensively used. We even now have cycle highways, developed by engineers employed overseas for recommendation.”