AN independent bike firm is gearing up to do “groundbreaking things” – after being taken over by the billionaire who saved Scottish steel.
Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty House Group rescued the Clydebridge and Dalzell steel mills in North Lanarkshire last April after they were mothballed by previous owner Tata Steel.
Now the metals magnate has made yet another acquisition in the country in an effort to “rejuvenate” UK cycle manufacturing.
Livingston-based Shand Cycles – which specialises in hand-built bikes with names such as Tumshie, Stoater and Bahookie – has been bought by the group for an undisclosed sum.
The deal was completed during the weekend and will see Shand join Liberty’s mountain bike operation Trillion in the Midlands.
The new owners now plan to expand Shand’s West Lothian manufacturing capacity while using the engineering expertise of its Midlands vehicle technology teams to help both arms of the operation grow by developing innovative products.
Steven Shand, who founded Shand Cycles in 2003, will continue to lead the company. He said: “This is an exciting new phase in the development of the business.
“Together, as part of the Liberty Group, I believe Trillion and ourselves can do some groundbreaking things in the cycle market.
“The link-up also allows us to develop some very valuable extra manufacturing capacity.”
The development of new manufacturing firms linked to its metal processing and engineering enterprises is central to Liberty’s strategy.
Gupta, whose first job was selling bicycles for his father’s Indian manufacturing firm, said: “We’re very excited to welcome Shand into the Liberty family of companies.
“We recognise the skill and quality they bring to bike production and feel they will work very well with the Trillion team and engineers and designers in our vehicle technologies division at Leamington Spa.
“We’re also pleased to expand further our investment in the Scottish economy where we already have major energy generation and metal manufacturing operations.
“Job numbers are small at present but we’re investing for growth and there will be many more, further down the line.”
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