Frog Bikes to fire up Welsh production lines from July

Frog Bikes will begin its UK assembly in July, initially with one production line, but with capacity for up to three.

Revealed back in February, the brand will call Torfaen home, with frames shipped in from China for final assembly in the UK. Production will begin mid-summer and will ramp up significantly ahead of Christmas, said Head of Marketing Andrew Kelly.

He told CyclingIndustry.News: “One of the major objectives has been to bring jobs back to the UK (reshoring) by setting up this facility. The plan is for approximately 30 jobs to be created by the end of 2017, but the size and infrastructure within the facility offers us the potential of introducing not just 1, but up to 3 production lines. If this goes ahead job creation will be significantly higher.

“Another one of our objectives is to undertake a programme of sourcing some of our components and materials locally, which will also create offshoot employment as will the provision of support services for the site, so it’s good news all around.”

At approximately 120,000 square feet, spanning two floors of a grade 2 listed building, the Torfaen facility will also serve as a distribution facility, with Kelly stating “we will be able to distribute to most of our markets from there and continue to follow demand where it emerges.”

Asked whether the long term plan may include assembly for other Brit-based brands, Kelly concludes “We have enough demand to keep the factory busy making our own bikes for now.”

Keep an eye on CyclingIndustry.News for another story of a brand reshoring its production later this week.