Sonnax Industries, an automobile parts manufacturer, has purchased Sinister Bikes. On the surface this may seem like a corporate buyout that could ruin the downhill bike manufacturer, but in reality it seems like Neil Joseph, the owner of Sonnax, will fit right in.
He started his auto parts company in 1976 on a dare from his father, and now produces top-end after-market transmission parts.
“We are really more of an engineering company that an auto parts manufacturer we engineer solutions”, Joseph told BOSS in an exclusive conference call with the whole Sinister crew. “We have been machining high end parts for cars. We looked at Sinister, and they seemed like a good fit. The capital we had didnt hurt either.”
Sinister is in the process of moving their production facility into the Sonnax shop. Their master frame-builder and VP of production, Frank Wadelton, and most of their executive team will be making the move as well.
Management is going to be a collaborative effort, but Joseph wants to keep the Sinister team insulated from the “corporate atmosphere” of Sonnax, “to keep them innovative.” Sales will still be handled by Bill Lazdowski at Sinisters Massachusetts office.
The new capital will help Sinister expand. “We are going to jump into producing complete bicycles for the first time”, said Jeff Loewer, The company liaison between Sonnax and Sinister. “We have always had three frames in production, but we are now going to enter the cross-country market, and well start producing free-ride bikes. We will also offer an extended line of soft goods.”
Its not every day that an auto parts manufacturer purchases a bike frame builder, but this pairing seems to be working, with a lot of enthusiasm from the new owners and the existing team. “I have lots of great plans for Sinister I havent even told them about yet…” concluded Joseph.
>>> This is a great first step towards something bigger, if they can pull it off…
