Growing Demand For Cycles Brought Japanese To Rivers
By JANE BECKER

A unique combination of a waiting plant, a special labor pool, and a demand for bicycles far outstripping supply will give Manitoba its first bicycle plant this summer.

Moreover, the manufacturer, Sckine Industries Co. Ltd of Japan hopes eventually to supply the North American market from its plant at the Oo-Za-We-Kwun Indian training centre at Rirers, Man.
According to Bert Luckhurst, of Resource Development Associates in Winnipeg, business consultants for the training centre, The chief credit for establishing the bike plant should go lo H. C. Paul of Winnipeg, who has been distributing Sekine cycles across the west for several years.

Mr. Paul found demand growing so fast — imported bicycles into Canada have tripled in the last three years, reaching a combined total of 450,000 last year - that he was having trouble getting deliveries on the 25,000 or so Sekine bicycles he was distributing through western Canada.

"So he put the idea to the Sekine people — why not start a plant and make the bikes in Canada?" Mr. Luckhurst says.
Then Oo-Za-We-Kwun got into the picture, through the good offices of Mr. Luckhurst, who suggested abandoned Rivers air force base, now a training centre tor native residents in the area, as the site for the plant.

Negotiations have been going on for about a year, with Sekine executives making several trips lo Canada lo look over the site.
Somewhere along the way, DREE got into the picture, with a $350,000 incentive grant to help Sekine renovate an old hangar into a $1 million factory.

The Sekine people are coming again later this month and the first bicycle should roll off the production line in August.
"We think the idea should work well." says Mr. Luckhurst last week. "A good percentage of the employees — there'll be about 40 to start with, but this should increase to 100 once actual manufacture gets underway next year — will be Indians in the area. Employment and training for those who wish it is the point of Oo-Za-We-Kwun. The Sekine people are expected to bring about three key executives to work in the  plant, and some engineers to get it started. After that, they'll rely on local labour.”

He says one feature of the set-up that appeals to the Japanese is that the plant will be in a "controlled environment," rather like an industrial park, which helps foster the Japanese idea of workers, being treated more like a family than is the case in North America.
There are 400 unoccupied houses in Rivers which will be leased to Sekine personnel "at modest rents," another inducement for the company to come.

The centre is already taking applicalions for jobs at the plant, although no one will actually be offered employment until the Sekine executives arrive.

Initial production will probably be about 50,000 bicycles a year. At first, the bikes — Sekine produces three, four and ten-speed models — will only be assembled at Rivers, with parts shipped from Japan.

"The main advantage at first will be that parts will be available for servicing," said a spokesman at H. C. Paul the other day. "We're not sure if there will be any price change, since there is also a duty on bicycle parts entering Canada."
Eventually, the idea is to have Sekine manufacture the bikes from scratch at Rivers, and to supply a North American market that could reach three million machines annually.

Mr. Luckhurst suggests there could be some problems in exporting the Manitoba bicycles to the U.S., though, because of the DREE grant involved. (U.S. manufacturers made such a fuss over Michelin tires being imported from that company's Nova Scotia plant, which also had government, aid, that duty was applied to the tires).

Sekine, which has formed a new company, Sekine Canada Ltd., to produce the bikes in Manitoba, is not the only manufacturer to come to the old air base. Fiber-Lex, a Manitoba company making fiberglass products, Base International, which makes wall panelling, and Edson Trailers, which is moving from Neepawa, where space is inadequate for expansion, are also in the area.

They will give jobs — and training — to about 125 native workers by the end of the summer, it's estimated.

One unanswered question remains: Why does it take a Japanese company to come in and make bicycles in Canada for Canadians? Canada's only other producer at the moment is CCM Manufacturing, of Toronto. It supplies about 150,000 bicycles yearly and, in the words of Mr. Luckhurst, "can't begin to meet the demand."