Gustobikes and DAHON Announce Biz Development in Taiwan

Gustobikes of Taiwan, a bicycle-manufacturing subsidiary of the food conglomerate Ting Hsin International Group (Master Kong brand), recently announced plans to set up 2,500 retailers throughout the Asia Pacific over the next few years.

Gustobikes was founded in 2011 by company chairman H.F. Wei, son of Ting Hsin group chairman Y.C. Wei, and has been Taiwan's the No.1 vendor of top-end carbon-fiber bicycles over the past two years.

At a recent press conference, H.F. Wei and Y.C. Wei jointly announced sponsoring NT$60 million (US$2 million) for the establishment of Taiwan's first professional cycling team, the Team Gusto.

At the press conference, H.F. Wei also announced launching an international bicycle  brand, ATTAQUE, which has begun sales-point development in Taiwan, China and Malaysia, and aims to become the leading bicycle distribution chain in the Asia Pacific.

In early March, DAHON announced returning to Taiwan after moving its headquarters to the U.S. many years ago. It has set up DAHON Taiwan LLP, a new local subsidiary for R&D, purchasing and distribution, also aiming to go public in Taiwan in 2016.

DAHON claims to be the world's leading maker of folding bikes, with headquarters in California, offices, factories, subcontract assembly plants and distribution partners across the world.

DAHON chairman David Hon claimed that in the future his company's high-end products will be developed and produced in Taiwan. He added that currently the production costs on the both sides of the Taiwan Strait remain similar, but the average selling prices (ASP) of Taiwan-made models is generally about 5% higher than China-made products.

DAHON used to produce folding bikes at four production bases in China and Eastern Europe, while maintaining high purchasing ratio of Taiwan-made bicycle parts. With a proposed plant in Taiwan, the firm's operating efficiency is expected to further upgrade.

In China, DAHON has about 80% of the folding-bike market by vending about 800,000 units annually. In conjunction with the continued introduction of non-folding bikes, the company aims to achieve annual revenue of about NT$6 billion (US$200 million) by 2015 and NT$10 billion (US$333.3 million) by 2016.