Following up on my post from Tuesday, I just got off the phone with Kinesis USA President Michael Chen. He called to give me more details about last week’s sale of Mountain Cycle.
Mountain Cycle has been sold to a Taiwanese company called Ideation Industrial. They’re a huge bicycle manufacturer established in 1977 with offices and factories across China. They sell bikes and electric scooters primarily in the European market.
According to Chen, their acquisition of Mountain Cycle will allow them to enter the U.S. market. The company already has an office in California but they have no definite plans to have a presence in Portland. However, Chen says Ideation reps are interested in re-hiring former employees and will be in Portland soon to conduct interviews (polish up those resumes guys!).
While he cannot speak for Ideation, Chen said he wouldn’t be surprised if they opened up a Portland office for marketing and R&D purposes.
It’s good to know the Mountain Cycle brand is not dead and let’s hope they open up an office here. Now that we’re an official “target industry” I wonder if a PDC rep can do some official wining and dining while they’re here?