A group of Italian investors will build an EUR 30 million bicycle plant in the western Romanian city of Temesvár/Timişoara, the city mayor and a representative for the Italian investors announced last week.
“Temesvár keeps proving that it is the most attractive city for investments and financing in the entire country”, mayor Nicolae Robu said at a press conference held jointly with Vincenzo Moderno, vice-president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Romania. “We are number one in the country, with foreign investments totaling four billion euros, while the second place only has half of that.”
Construction of the plant begins in early 2020, and the first bicycles would probably roll of the production line by the end of the year. Initially, the plant will assemble bicycles mainly from Asian parts sourced from Taiwan, Vietnam, China, and Japan and export them to Eastern Europe and Russia. Sport Mechanical Workshop, a local factory, is already producing B’twin brand bicycles for the French sporting goods retailer Decathlon. Last year, Decathlon launched its “Made in Romania” line of products.
The new plant will initially employ 450 people and will have a planned output of 1.5 million bicycles, more than the 900,000 bicycles produced by Romania in 2018. Europe’s total bicycle production last year was 13 million units.
Future plans include the production of electric bicycles as well.
Title image: Assembly line of B’twin brand bicycles. (source: bikemag.hu)
