Hermes Chang has been unveiled as the new President of Taiwanese bike manufacturer Ideal Bike Corporation (IBC). IBC distributes its products within the domestic market in Taiwan and to overseas markets including Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Chang succeeds Louis Chan, the former IBC President, who becomes President of ASI-Asia – the company that markets and distributes road bike brands such as Fuji and Kestrel, alongside the SE Racing street bike brand and Breezer folding and city bikes.
Chan becomes Chief Strategic Officer for Ideal Bike Corporation and in his role of President at ASI-Asia he shall oversee the key strategic partnership between IBC in Taiwan and Advanced Sports Inc (ASI) in the US. The US remains a key market for IBC.
Announcing the management change, Hermes Chang said, “Our strategic alliance with Fuji, Kestrel, SE Racing and Breezer is a good example on how Ideal Bike Corp wants to go in the near future. Currently we have a 17% shareholding in Fuji – ASI-Asia. We are looking for the same partnerships in Europe.”
IBC has three main manufacturing sites: in Taiwan, China and Kutno in Poland.
Chang commented on the role played by the Polish site: “Next to Giant we are the only Taiwanese bike maker having a facility in Europe, which due to currency exchange rate problems was loss making in 2008. This problem won’t happen this year. The position of the Poland factory is OK as anti-dumping is still a big factor. Next to that the positioning of the factory in Poland is perfect as it at the heart of Europe and has low labour costs. We target to further grow the company there and its production of high-end bikes.”
