Bicycles from Krusevac for European market - Dutch Mega Bike interested in starting production in Serbia

Andrew Fortan, the owner of Dutch bicycle wholesaler Mega Bike, said Monday (11 March 2013) in Krusevac that that company was interested in producing bicycles in Serbia.

After touring the facilities of the Krusevac bicycle manufacturer Planet Bike, with which this Dutch company has been cooperating for several years now, Fortan expressed satisfaction with what he had seen and announced the possibility of expanding their cooperation.

As Planet Bike Director Djordje Mircic explained to Tanjug news agency, these two companies could invest together in capacity expansion in the future, that is, in the construction of a new factory and the procurement of equipment, which would cost about EUR 0.5 million.

- Their impression is that we can be competitive when it comes to quality, while the workforce here is much cheaper than in EU countries - said Mircic.

As he added, the Mega Bike company requires about 200,000 bicycles a year, which would be impossible to produce at the Krusevac-based factory if its capacity remained at the current level. He also pointed out that the investment could be implemented as early as at the beginning of 2014.

- This year we will export minimum 10,000 bicycles to the Netherlands and depending on the agreement with our partners, it is very likely that our production in Serbia will be doubled in 2014 - Mircic noted.

Planet Bike, which opened its factory in Krusevac in 2007 and hired 65 workers to date, annually produces 40,000 bicycles and exports 25 percent of the production to Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia.

Mega Bike is engaged in bicycle wholesale in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.