The former U.S. bicycle factory in Celina, Ohio, is today used by Crown Equipment Corporation to produce forklifts. Huffy bikes were originally made in the U.S., but by the mid-1990s, the company fell into deep financial trouble. The U.S. Bicycle industry had consolidated, and high-volume retailers accounted for three-fourths of the U.S. market, which gave them massive control over manufacturers.
schwinn spin bike was under pressure from Walmart in particular, who at one point ordered 900,000 bikes, but insisted that Huffy decrease its prices significantly. Reluctantly, Huffy agreed in order to remain a major player in the market. The corporate headquarters, which had been in Centerville for about 10 years, is where the company does design, sales, marketing, product development and other corporate operations. The new facility will have amenities for employees like a new fitness center. Huffy Corp., now based in Centerville, is planning to move to a 50,000-square-foot headquarters that will give the company 40 percent more space to design and showcase its sample bikes. Huffy beach cruisers are heavy and come with some low-tier components, but they are good for budget-constricted buyers.
Refinements made by Huffy engineers allowed them to reduce the wheel weight from 5.5 Ibs. January was down for the overall U.S. bike industry by about 3%. In March, it exploded,” Jordan told Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.
More and more adults were turning to bikes for exercise and as a means to cut energy costs. Until the end of the 1960s, nearly half of all bicycles in the United States were sold through small independent bike shops that offered personal customer service. In the 1970s, the introduction of mass merchandise retail chains that stocked large quantities of consumer goods and sold them at discount prices opened up a new market for bike sales. In 1980 posted its fifth straight year of record earnings and announced plans to open a third plant in Ponca City, Oklahoma. However, despite its strong financial position, Huffy was not immune to the problems that most American businesses experienced in the 1980s.
Another unit of the company, Royce-Union, sells about 250,000 higher-end bikes under the RU and Royce brand names. That unit always has outsourced production, to the same plants in China, Taiwan and Mexico that will be making Huffy bikes. But Larry Pizzi, Brunswick’s vice president of marketing, said prices of imported Chinese bikes has declined 30 percent a year for the past 2 1/2 years, forcing Brunswick to transfer some production to Mexico. Huffy has been making bicycles in the United States since 1934 and currently imports about 70 percent of its bikes, from China, Taiwan and Mexico. The company holds 25 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. market, the largest single share.