Work has begun on a brand new Bianchi factory and headquarters in the Treviglio region of Italy, the company’s CEO Fabrizio Scalzotto announced on Thursday.
The plans for a 30,000 square metre facility, first announced in July, include 17,000 square metres devoted to bike production, and the creation of an on-site Bianchi Museum aimed at attracting tourists to the area. The work is scheduled to be completed in 2023 and is expected to cost around £35 million.
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The new site will employ over 250 people, with the project hoping to revitalise one of northern Italy’s traditional industrial heartlands by resituating most of Bianchi’s carbon-fibre frame production on Italian soil. The company hopes to increase its Italy-based production from 250 bikes a day to over 1,000 units each shift.
Earlier this year Scalzotto claimed it was “now or never” when it came to returning control of the manufacturing process to Italy, as logistical disruptions due to Covid-19 and the US-China trade war saw order times extended to between 500 and 700 days. It's something fellow Italian bike brand 3T has also done, announcing back in June that it was moving its carbon frame manufacturing in-house.
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"Key to Bianchi's vision and strategy is the beginning of a re-shoring process, bringing back to Italy the technical and production capacities that had been outsourced outside of Europe in previous decades," Scalzotto said on Thursday.
Bianchi’s president and owner Salvatore Grimaldi reaffirmed this commitment to home-grown production, saying, "Growing and developing companies is the challenge that fascinates me more than any other, and today we are embracing a new one: creating at Bianchi one of the most advanced bicycle manufacturing plants in the world. We feel proud to have chosen Treviglio for this renewal and for our future. Treviglio will be home not only of a technological and designer factory, but of a leading, ambitious company with a global vision.”
Sounds like a potential Hyphaema, the iris is pretty fragile and making it bleed is quite easy with a blow like that ... been there, done that ...
What HoarseMann said. If you ignore Ray's moans about the App and just concentrate on the fact that its does everyting a Varia Radar AND a Fly 6...
I cycle like far more of a knobhead than I drive. Putting myself at risk on the bike is one thing but putting others at risk in the car is...
The comments on that facebook post are the worst bin fire you could imagine. 10,000+ posts about how much self-confessed bigots hate people on...
I modified our tandem so the stoker chainset can freewheel.
But it's a working farm already so has these space issues on those roads even if nothing is done with the biogas plant. The main issue seems to be...
Gohn O'Groats?
My old man always told me if the butler isn't there to pop the cork just make sure you don't hit the horse.
Wheel makers aren't going to get much money from me now I don't have to worry about wearing out the rims on a commute to work in all weathers.
Considering that they've only got a 1 in 360 chance of getting it right by accident, we should applaud the fact that 'our highly skilled operatives...