January 15/13 15:39 pm - Raleigh to Close Canadian Manufacturing Facility

Posted by Editoress on 01/15/13
 

Raleigh Canada announced today that they will stop manufacturing and assembling bicycles at their Waterloo, Quebec, facility.  The plant employs approximately 120 people seasonally to produce bicycles for the private label mass market and the Raleigh brand.  The facility will remain open as a warehouse and distribution centre, but about 100 seasonal jobs are expected to be lost.

The Raleigh factory did not actually manufacture bicycles from scratch, and had not done so for a few years.  Instead, it imported frames from Asia and finished and assembled them.

Ironically, Raleigh Canada had recently won a continuance on anti-dumping duties through the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), arguing that removing duties would open the door to manufacturers from Taiwan and China to dump bikes in the Canadian market.  Now that Raleigh has discontinued producing bikes in Canada, we have anti-dumping duties keeping prices higher to protect no one.

 "In the context of our global competitive market where offshore suppliers offer fierce competition, Raleigh has taken the difficult decision to cease bicycle manufacturing and assembly in Canada, as this activity is no longer economically viable," commented Chris Enoksen, President of Raleigh Canada. "This is a market reality which was reflected by a steady decline in Raleigh's bicycles produced at the Waterloo facility over the last 5 years."

"Raleigh is proud to have maintained bicycle manufacturing and assembly operations in Canada longer than other major competitors, who left this field years ago," added Enoksen. "We regret that our manufacturing activity can no longer be sustained and, above all, we are deeply grateful to all our dedicated employees in Waterloo who have contributed to Raleigh's outstanding reputation for producing high quality affordable bicycles since 1973."