🠈 Giant Bicycle 🠊
Giant Bicycle
Giant Bicycle is a Taiwan based bicycle manufacturer. The company grew large when it became the primary manufacturer for Schwinn.
Corporate History
The video claims that the concept for Giant Bicycles was forged after a typhoon wiped out the eel farm of King Liu and he needed to find a new direction.
The corporate history appears quite clean. The company grew large as an OEM for Schwinn. They began selling bikes under their own brand. Schwinn tried to move production to China. Schwinn fell apart, Giant survived.
- 1972: Lui founded Giant Manufacturing Company, Ltd. in Taiwan.
- 1977: Giant signed deal to manufacture a small number of bikes with Schwinn.
- 1981: After a strike by the United Auto Workers' Union, Giant began producing most of Schwinn's bikes.
- 1986: Giant began selling bikes under its own name. Schwinn responsed by outsourcing through a Chinese firm.
- 1987: Giant formed a U.S. subsidiary called Giant Bicycle Inc.. They formed contracts to sell through Target and Toys R. Us.
- 1992: Giant opened a manufacturing plant in China.
- 1995: Goldman Sachs bought a 9% stake in Giant for $12.5 m.
- 1995: Giant introduced a compact frame for road bikes which radically changed the market.
- 1996: Giant opened a manufacturing facility in the Netherlands.
- 2009: Giant launched its YouBike bike rental system in Taipei.
References:
- Encyclopedia.com - Scwhinn (Drawn 7/26/2022)