Bike parts firm moving HQ, 85 jobs to Ogden

A bicycle components manufacturer will make Ogden its U.S. headquarters and create 85 jobs over the next 10 years, including 65 over the next seven years.

Selle Royal Group, which owns Crankbrothers, will move the Crankbrothers operations from Laguna Beach, California. Ogden will serve as its U.S. base and house product development and internal product assembly.

The company announced the move last week after being approved for a tax rebate incentive of up to $272,103 by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED). The incentive is tied to the 65 jobs.

“This is, I think, a very, very important incentive, for a number of reasons,” Jerry Oldroyd, chairman of the GOED board’s incentives committee, told the board prior to the incentive approval. “It involves the outdoor products cluster, it was brought to us by a local entity — it’s not something that came to us directly but through a close partnership with the city of Ogden … and it also involves direct foreign investing.”

Oldroyd said Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Reno, Nevada, had been competing with Utah to land the project. It is expected to result in a $4 million capital investment, about $16.2 million in new wages over seven years and about $1.4 million in new state taxes during that period.

Selle Royal, an Italian company, has about 1,000 employees worldwide and offers products in more than 70 nations. It acquired Crankbrothers in 2008. Crankbrothers, which has about 60 employees, creates and engineers mountain bike components distributed to customers worldwide. The components include pedals, wheels, tools and pumps. Oldroyd said it has 30 percent of the world market share and 60 percent of the European market share. The assembly operations will move to Ogden from Taiwan sometime in the next three years. A company representative told the board that Ogden likely will also be involved in other Selle Royal brands, including Fizik and Brooks.

“Our group is made of product-driven brands,” Gaspare Licata, general manager of Selle Royal North America, said in a prepared statement. “We have the ambition with this investment to be able to develop the greatest products in the bicycle industry. The state of Utah, and Ogden in particular, is becoming a great area for outdoor industry, and we think we can attract great talent here. We thank the city of Ogden for being such a committed partner to build this important pillar for the growth of our group.”

“Utah is truly a global hub for outdoor products,” said Val Hale, GOED’s executive director. “It’s wonderful to see an established international company like Selle Royal Group recognize this and join the ranks. We look forward to the contributions they will make to our outdoor recreation industry.”

“We are excited to have Selle Royal group join the thriving cycling manufacturing industry in Ogden,” said Jeff Edwards, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. “Being surrounded by the beautiful Wasatch Mountains and other successful cycling companies will provide Selle Royal Group an ideal place to expand and grow their North American presence.”