Decathlon owns Madirom Prod company, which assembles 350,000 to 400,000 bicycles a year together with a Romanian-owned company in Resita (western Romania), VeloCity.
“Our target is to boost production to meet demand in SE Europe,” says Diana Buscan, financial manager with Madirom Prod.
The sporting goods retailer only assembles bicycles in Resita, Romania, using parts made elsewhere.
“Most parts come from abroad and are supplied to our partner for assembly. The entire production is exported,” Diana Buscan said.
Decathlon also has 11 stores in Romania, which posted RON195 million sales last year, up 35% on the previous year. This puts it on the leading position in the ranking of sporting goods retailers.
Although Decathlon chose to only assemble bicycles in Romania, the country is well known in Europe as one of the main bicycle part and accessory maker. Eurostat data show it to be the third leading such producer in EU, having shipped EUR200 million worth of bicycle parts and accessories in 2011.
Despite being such a major part manufacturer, Romania is not a similarly important bicycle producer, even though it is a top ten manufacturer in the EU, according to Eurostat data. (EUR1=RON4.4537)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)