Sanjeev Gupta’s metals and industrials business Liberty House Group said it took another step towards its ambition of rejuvenating bicycle manufacturing in the UK by acquiring Livingston-based cycle firm Shand Cycles UK to add to its existing Trillion operation in the Midlands.
Liberty said it intends to expand Shand’s manufacturing capacity at Livingston, West Lothian, while also using the engineering expertise of its Midlands vehicle technology teams to support Shand and Trillion to grow by developing innovative products.
Shand, established in 2003, is an independent manufacturer fabricating hand-built custom and production bikes.
Liberty, part of the GFG Alliance, intends that Shand’s range of road and adventure touring bikes will complement Trillion’s offering of high-specification mountain bikes.
Each will retain its brand identity within the newly-created Liberty Cycles division.
Bringing significant cycle manufacturing back to the UK has been a long-held ambition of entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta, who began his working life selling bicycles on behalf of his father’s Indian manufacturing firm.
Gupta 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.
“Liberty is developing a solid base upon which to build a significant bike manufacturing business, offering high quality and attractive machines to all parts of the market.
“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.”
Steven Shand, founder of Shand Cycles, who will continue to lead the company, 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 ground-breaking things in the cycle market.
“The link up also allows us to develop some very valuable extra manufacturing capacity.”