The Quebec bicycle design firm Rocky Mountain, which is rolling at full speed with the boom in demand, has to slow down due to the closure of a factory in Malaysia.
“The closure of a Shimano factory in Malaysia affects over 75% of our platforms, so there is often a small part, no matter which one, that comes from that factory,” explains Katy Bond, manager. General of Rocky Mountain.
In this Southeast Asian country, the pandemic is still raging. The country is undergoing factory closures, causing headaches for the entire industry.
So far, despite these headwinds, Rocky Mountain has managed to deliver its bikes since the start of the year.
“We still managed to deliver our bikes 96% in the right period of time,” says the person who runs the company, on the phone.
Founded in 1981, Rocky Mountain, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, was bought in 1997 by Raymond Dutil, from the Dutil family, owner of Canam.
Today, the company of 130 employees, which is headquartered in Saint-Georges, Beauce, and a development and marketing research center in North Vancouver, is experiencing rapid growth with the pandemic.
“All of our bikes are assembled in Asia. Internally, we design the bike, we decide to dress it with certain X, Y and Z parts and we make our first aluminum prototypes in-house, ”continues Katy Bond.
Difficult months
However, despite orders on the rise, challenges are in its path.
Procurement of parts, development of frames, laborious transport of bikes … Rocky Mountain has not had it easy in recent months.
“Before, it took 90 days to get a derailleur. Now, for more than half of the bicycle parts, we are going to seek production times of more than 500 days ”, illustrates Ms. Bond.
The factories that manufacture its aluminum or carbon frames are crumbling in demand. The price of aluminum has increased by 30%, she adds.
In the absence of being able to monitor work abroad, the company has turned to tech tools to keep an eye on it from a distance.
“We were forced to buy small robots to do the inspection on the floor because we could not go on site to the assembly factories in Taiwan,” gives Katy Bond as an example.
To make matters worse, big component players like Shimano, Sram and Fox are finding it increasingly difficult to deliver the goods, and cells for e-bikes are also hard to come by.
“It’s war at the moment to have access to these parts,” she said to conclude.
► Last year, spending on the purchase and maintenance of bicycles jumped 32% in Quebec, according to the firm Moneris. For their part, sales in bicycle stores grew by 87% in January.
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