Bulgaria Turning Into Next European Bike Valley

The newest producer of the e-bike in Bulgaria is called Cross Ltd. Recently, the company inaugurated a new production unit of e-bikes in Montana. In around mid of 2017, Leader 96 launched a second production factory in the area of Plovdiv. Other than these two, the Bulgarian bike production facility consists of the other four producers. Bulgaria will soon turn in to the next bike valley of Europe.

Bulgarian bicycle factories leveraged on the fact that the e-bike market is growing and shifted towards the production of e-bike within Europe. Due to this, the company is growing at a fast pace, and bringing in newfound success for the country. 

Export numbers

The export of e-bike is growing at a rapid speed. While Bulgarian OEM grew by 240%, it marked a 50% increase than the first half of 2019. This is not surprising. Automated bikes are facing newfound importance due to recent vast investments in production facilities. A study by Eurostat, Bulgaria has reported that they exported over 35,000 automated bikes in 2017. Numbers only grew in the next year as well. In the first quarter of 2019, the sales were exceeded leaving astonishing results. Around 116,000 bikes were exported in only the first six months of 2019. 

If we talk in terms of money, in 2018, more than 106 million euro revenue is generated. Per value export unit stands at 898 euros.

Other than e-bikes, regular bicycles were also exported in huge numbers. Around 680,000 bikes were exported.

Most of these bikes were exported to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. Regular bikes were exported to Switzerland and Romania.

Association of Bicycle Producers in Bulgaria

Newest bike producing facility in all of Bulgaria is Cross Ltd. The company has lately inaugurated a new production facility for the production of electronic bikes in Montana. Bulgaria has spent 2 million euro for the new production facility. Also, an additional 4 million euros would be invested in buildings, warehouses, logistics centers, and machines. They plan on producing 300,000 units this year.

Leader 96 Ltd opened a second bike factory in mid-2017 near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Leader 96 has kept aside 6 million euros for the new 18,000^2 production and warehouse complex. This new production factory will cause an increase in production capacity. The new factory will be able to produce 400,000 units a year and can house 550 employees. The parent company of this bicycle production unit is a Finnish investment company KJK capital. The sports company KJK sports owns Sloenvian Elan and Tahe Outdoors from Estonia.

Other than that, the bicycle company consists of four other producers, including Maxcom, Balkan Velo-ad, Velomania, and Passeti.

These companies come under the Association of Bicycle Producers in Bulgaria. It was recorded in 2018, they produced 820,000 units. Most of which was exported.

The six producers made around a million electric bikes, due to which Bulgaria is changing into a Bike valley real soon. This production factory is said to rise in the upcoming years. All thanks to the high import rate of regular bikes from China and production in Europe, Bulgaria will reach new levels without any doubt.