September 27 (SeeNews) - German electric bike manufacturer Technibike has relocated its product assembly operations to Bulgaria from Germany, a company official told SeeNews.
Technibike will work with an established Bulgarian partner experienced in high-quality e-bike production, a company official told SeeNews in an emailed statement, declining to provide the partner's name.
"At the moment, we are not planning to build up our own production and see the best set-up in the cooperation with our partner," the official, who preferred to remain unnamed, added.
Technibike first announced plans for a relocation of production to other European countries in early September, citing significantly worsened post-pandemic conditions on the domestic market.
"Compared with other European countries, we pay almost three times the energy costs and are also confronted with massively increased personnel costs. Production at competitive prices is therefore impossible. It has also become obvious that we can hardly scale our own production at the current location in Germany," the company said in a press release at the time. It also noted the difficulty of finding suitable skilled personnel as well as administrative burdens.
Keen to retain a major part of the value chain in Germany and Europe, Technibike will keep logistics and service operations as its current location so as to ensure a smooth and fast way for dealers to order spare parts.
Based in the western German city of Daun, south of Bonn, and founded in 2014, Technibike's flagship brand is HoheAcht. It produces city, trekking and mountain e-bikes, also under the brands Cooper Bikes and Pyro and using Shimano EP8 motors.