India-based global cycle major Hero Cycles is breathing fresh life into one of Britain’s most famous bike brands - Viking. Hero Cycles, the world’s biggest bicycle manufacturer by volumes, bought the 110-year-old Viking brand when it purchased Manchester based bike distributor Avocet Cycles in 2015. Now this month after a near 40-year absence the first range of bespoke British designed Viking bikes is rolling into cycle shops across the UK.
Avocet CEO Sreeram Venkateswaran said following decades of ownership changes and neglect Viking is back with a range of bikes ‘fit to wear the badge’. “When Hero Cycles bought Avocet we wanted to make an impact on the UK market,” he said.
“Viking is a brand which fires the imagination and captures our ambitions. Viking has heritage, it has passion and in its glory days it was one of the finest bike manufacturers in the world with one of the best racing teams in Britain. We have invested more than £2million (approx.. Rs 18.25 crore) in moving our Global Design Centre from India to Manchester so we can embrace brands like Viking and recalibrate them, restoring the quality they were famed for. Our new range of Viking bikes is the first designed in the UK for 40 years. We believe the new Viking range of bikes can really connect with people, particularly families looking for a well-designed bike in the £250 to £1500 price range (Rs 22,811 to Rs 1.37 lakh),” he added.
Viking shot to fame in Britain after the war from its manufacturing base in Wolverhampton. With production reaching a peak of 20,000 bikes a year in the 1960s Viking was firmly positioned as one of the country’s leading bike makers. The company cemented its position by forming its own road racing team which became hugely successful riding its Master Series SS and Severn Valley lightweight racer bikes with notable victories in the Tour of Britain in the 1950s. Viking later further diversified into children’s bikes which eventually made up three quarters of its trade. The company ceased trading in 1967 and went through ownership changes and disappeared entirely from the 1980s until Avocet bought the trademark in 2002.
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