BMC Trading AG unveiled a highly-automated factory last week near its headquarter in Grenchen, Switzerland that it says revolutionizes the process of weaving carbon fiber bike frames.
The new factory enables BMC to advertise its new Impec bike line as being made with “Swiss precision” at a time when many other brands have moved carbon frame production offshore to take advantage of lower labor rates.
“The frames are entirely machine made, which eliminates human error completely, and allows for every frame to be made exactly to the same specifications as the one before it,” said Selvig Fabio, general manager for BMC USA. “We can literally make 100,000 frames, and they will be identical to each other.”
BMC thinks it has a three- to five- year lead on competitors, during which it will be able to market its Impec line as “the most precisely manufactured bicycles in the history of bicycle making,” Fabio said. “We have invested several years and countless personnel hours to reach this goal and the technology and machinery are not easily replicated.”
Work on the new production process, which relies heavily on robotics, began soon after Andy Rihs acquired BMC in 2001. BMC opened the factory to the trade press last week as it prepares for a big push in North America. The company took over distribution in the United States from QBP in May and named a new Canadian distributor Outdoor Gear Canada (OGC) of Montreal – in June. BMC had distributed through QBP since 2005, but is now distributing from a warehouse in Massachusetts.
“We have a new warehouse that works in the pharmaceutical industry and is highly accurate with inventory controls,” said Fabio. “It has a very sophisticated bar-coding, inventorying and recording system, and because of their location they can ship to most contiguous states within 4 days for the price of ground shipping.”
The direct distribution model has allowed BMC to lower pricing and increase dealer margins even as it builds a rep force to promote the brand to its dealer network. The company has 97 qualified dealers and another dozen waiting to be approved, Fabio said via e-mail from Switzerland, where he was attending a sales meeting.
OGC is Canada's leading supplier of premium cycling brands and is the exclusive Canadian distributor for Easton Bell Sports (Bell, Blackburn, CoPilot, Easton, Giro), Camelbak, Finish Line, Fox, Kryptonite, Mavic, Profile, Speedplay, SportRack, Thule, Vittoria and White Lightning. OGC also now distributes three bicycle brands; BMC, Intense and Opus.
