Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
A folded Brompton bike in the factory at Greenford.
At the moment, Brompton makes its bicycles at its headquarters in Greenford, west London, using parts sourced from Taiwan and China, as well as Europe. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian
At the moment, Brompton makes its bicycles at its headquarters in Greenford, west London, using parts sourced from Taiwan and China, as well as Europe. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Bike maker Brompton to source fewer parts from China and Taiwan

This article is more than 1 year old

UK company makes decision because of growing tensions between Beijing and the island

Brompton, the UK’s largest bicycle maker, has said it is planning to reduce its dependence on China and Taiwan for parts, amid fears of a growing military threat to the island from Beijing.

The company known for its folding bikes is among various western firms hoping to ensure they can source supplies from other countries, as concerns mount over rising geopolitical tensions, and even a possible future invasion of Taiwan by China, which considers the island to be a breakaway province.

“I think it’s pretty prudent because there are risks in the region,” said Brompton’s chief executive, Will Butler-Adams, adding that he thought the threat was “relatively low but it does exist”.

Brompton makes its bicycles at its headquarters in Greenford, west London, using parts sourced from Taiwan – one of the world’s largest exporters of bike parts – and China, as well as Europe.

The move, first reported by the Telegraph, makes the company one of the first western manufacturers to announce plans to shift its supply chains.

Butler-Adams told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday that the company had grown big enough to activate “dual supply”, where businesses source parts from two different locations.

“It comes at a cost. And you need to have a certain amount of scale to do that – when you’re smaller, you just don’t have the scale.”

However, Taiwanese manufacturers are also starting operations in other parts of Asia as part of their own contingency planning, according to Butler-Adams.

“It’s not like you’re going to a completely new supplier to try to find those parts. Your existing supplier, who can also see that there are risks and also can feel some demand and pressure from their customers, who’s going: ‘Right, we’ll set up an operation in Vietnam or in Thailand,’” he said.

“That’s a much better route because you’re dealing with somebody who already understands your product, already has the specialist equipment and, in some cases, might take some of that equipment and move it to the new operation and therefore you’ve got dual supply through the same company.”

skip past newsletter promotion

Brompton has experienced a tough two or three years “with all sorts of other supply chain challenges” as a result of Covid lockdowns, Butler-Adams said, which closed factories and disrupted global shipping.

China is Brompton’s fastest-growing market, Butler-Adams told the Guardian last year, explaining that the country was returning to bicycles in its cities, with Shanghai building cycle lanes.

The company, which is building a new factory on stilts at a newly restored wetland near Ashford in Kent, has the ultimate goal of building 200,000 bikes a year, about double the current production levels.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Siemens to invest £100m in Chippenham rail factory site in Wiltshire

  • UK manufacturers hit by Red Sea disruption and rising shipping costs

  • Will Butler-Adams: Brompton Bicycle’s evangelist-in-chief

  • Brompton Bikes plans £100m wetland factory on stilts

  • UK factories cut production for 11th month in a row amid tensions in Red Sea

  • Nearly 700 Safestyle staff lose jobs as window firm enters administration

  • UK must offer businesses certainty over green energy, says boss of FTSE 100 firm

  • UK manufacturers cut hiring plans amid ‘sharp slowdown’, survey finds

  • The UK has a PR plan masquerading as an industrial strategy

  • Lack of plan for green industry risks UK ‘falling behind’, top government adviser warns

Most viewed

Most viewed