PON halts Gazelle production for “at least three weeks”

The PON groups’ Gazelle label will see production halted for at least three weeks in a bid to protect workers from the Coronavirus sweeping the globe.

CEO of Gazelle Huub Lamers posted a video to his LinkedIn profile late last week showing emptied production halls with an explanation stating that in the interests of safety of employees and customers production will temporarily cease. The move took effect as of Friday and was in part in response to an anticipated slow down of the supply of components likely in the near future.

PON and Gazelle PR manager Lisette Kars told NieuwsFiets: “The starting point for Gazelle is the health of our employees, suppliers and dealers. In many areas we have taken precautions to ensure that Gazelle employees continue to do their work properly and safely.”

PON suggested that stock levels do remain strong enough to cope with demand for the time being, at the same time appealing to Dutch cabinet to assist in preserving the jobs of its employees.

Gazelle had otherwise been seeing a promising start to the year, inking corporate deals that saw Centre Parcs mainland European locations gaining large fleets of the bike makers models, as well as a further deal with Roompot Holiday Parks that was worth 2,300 units. The latter deal saw the fleet of electric bikes held double.

The news comes in tandem with reporting on a closest rival of PON, The Accell Group, which is cutting flexible production staff temporarily in response to the crisis. The business has seen its share price suffer particularly badly in what has been an immensely turbulent period for investors.