Gorenje buying out the Rog brand for 41,500 EUR – First bicycles on the market in 2017

Illustration (Photo: Dudarev Mikhail/shutterstock.com)

A private owner bought out the brand from the once well known Ljubljana bicycle factory Rog, which was declared insolvent in 2009, and is prepared to waive rights to intellectual property for 41,500 EUR.

- Gorenje has the knowledge and experience which can be used to revitalize one of Slovenia's best known industrial brands – said CEO of Gorenje Franjo Bobinac and confirmed that Gorenje would start manufacturing bicycles.

Gorenje is entering the project of revitalizing the old Slovenian bicycle brand, once known all over the former Yugoslavia, with Ljubljana's BTC as its partner.

The first bicycles of the new generation will appear on the market in 2017. The first to be manufactured is a modern version of the once mega-popular folding bicycle Pony, using modern materials and improved ergonomics, while a year later, mountain and city bicycles and electric bicycles will enter the market. Up until the late 1980s, Rog was manufacturing 300-350 thousand bicycles a year, but later experienced hardship and decline when the joint Yugoslavian market collapsed and cheap exporting from the Far East was introduced.