Best known for their ultra-premium, US-made carbon fibre rims (and their accompanying logos), Utah’s ENVE Composites has been sold to Amer Sports. With annual sales totalling $30m (£21m and change), the composites manufacturer sold for $50m (£35m) in cash.
Despite some production having been outsourced to Asia (including a recently-recalled Vietnamese-made road fork) ENVE has long been vocal about their commitment to US production- particularly when it comes to rims.
Brand aside, part of what likely makes ENVE attractive to Amer Sports is the company’s intellectual property related to composite rim construction and aerodynamic rim design- areas in which newly-adopted corporate cousins Mavic have struggled. In exchange, the company will likely receive increased working capital and improved logistics, distribution, and access to OEM accounts.
Amer Sports’ brief press release makes no statements regarding plans for ENVE’s Utah facility or workforce.
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Thereby negating the need for mavic to develop carbon rims? Neat.
Or maybe provide deeper pockets after their fork recall.
http://www.cpsc.gov/en/recalls/recall-alerts/2016/enve-recalls-bicycle-forks/#remedy
Hazard:
The left leg of the bicycle fork can crack above the disc brake mount, posing a fall hazard.