Pon.Bike, the world’s largest bicycle maker owned by the Dutch holding Pon Holdings, has opened its new production facility in Lithuania’s central town of Kėdainiai, having invested 57 million euros.
“In the very heart of Lithuania, we have a very prominent facility where tens and hundreds of thousands of bicycles will be produced, not only for the Lithuanian or European markets, but also for the whole world,” Economy Minister Aušrinė Armonaitė said at the opening ceremony on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Marius Skuodis said that Lithuania would one day have bicycle infrastructure similar to the one in the Netherlands, where it took decades to build.
“With the help of our colleagues from the Netherlands, we will move faster than they did in the Netherlands because we have friends we can learn from,” Skuodis said.
Situated in the Kėdainiai free economic zone, the new facility will produce up to 450,000 bicycles annually and employ around 600 people.
The ministry and Pon.Bike have a major investment project agreement signed and it gives the plant the status of a project of national importance. The company will pay no corporate tax for up to 20 years.
According to the ministry, Lithuania is one of the largest bicycle makers in Europe, with bicycle exports accounting for around 1.5 percent of Lithuania’s total exports in 2023.
Pon.Bike will produce Gazelle, Kalkhoff, Focius and Urban Arrow bicycles in Kėdainiai.
Pon.Bike was founded in 2011 in the Netherlands and employs 2,400 people. It has factories in Duren, the Netherlands, and Emstek, Germany.
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