Friday, June 19, 2009

Layoffs at Campagnolo: Company Aims to Streamline Operations

An Italian web site reported recently that Campagnolo was forced to lay off 60 workers at its Vicenza facility. The company said the layoffs were the result stiff competition for its products, particularly in the US, and were part of an overall restructuring to make Campagnolo more streamlined and efficient.

A Google translation of the original article, which includes a mention of the company's Romanian factory, is below:

Campagnolo but the restructuring bill. "Reorganize the company, 60 redundancies'

VICENZA - Streamlining internal "Campagnolo", the company bicycle race leader in the world: termination of employment for 60 employees and workers of the establishment vicentino. The announcement was made yesterday by May dismissals will take effect. "We aim for a reorganization of production 'process', the style of Toyota - the CEO says Valentino Campagnolo - despite the sector is affected by the crisis are we going to conclude this exercise in positive, with about 110 million euros in turnover and orders up 6 cents.
The corporate restructuring has been agreed with unions Fim Cisl and FIOM Cgil for redundancy and pension accompaniments. Campagnolo The group has 438 jobs in pati ¬ Vicentino - between the parent and the brand name 'Fulcrum' of Arcugnano - more than 230 workers, mostly laborers, in a third factory in Romania Bitesti. "The 82 per cent of our market strategy is ¬ Niero, especially U.S., which absorbs 14 percent of total production - says the ad - suffer from competition from competitors particularly aggressive. ¬ tend to continue to be leaders, and for that we are reorganizing: on one side with strong investment in innovation, we have allocated two million one hundred thousand euros for new trademarks and patents, the other with a rationalization of produc ¬ ne.
The fiscal year in Campagnolo opens the first in June and ends May 31 after the 2007-2008 budget was closed with 104 million euro turnover and a profit of one million and a half. "Of the 60 esu ¬ beri, 20 are accompaniments to the board, 20 will be mobile and rhyme ¬ nents in layoffs and mobility - explains Paolo Buratto, in charge of personnel - in the works remain Vicenza ¬ tions with a high added value, such as pro ¬ duction of molds and prototypes.
There used high professionalism, which accounts ¬ nueranno to stay in Italy. The fact is that the company is moving from a pi ¬ ramidale to a proces ¬ organization is more agile. Certain roles are no longer ra ¬ gion to exist, and are denied ¬ tively impact on the cost of the product. " ¬ The company has provided to a budget con ¬ fon of his own about a thousand euros for each of the employees made redundant to start a course of retraining to customize ¬, chosen by the worker.
Andrea Alba

Campagnolo: Made in Romania?

Here's some interesting news: Campagnolo is among a number of companies that have located subsidiaries or production facilities in Romania. The FCA Group, an Italian company that provides services to Italian businesses seeking to locate in Romania, lists Campagnolo among a number of other well-known industrial firms in Romania. Others include Ford, Renault, Pirelli, and Michelin. Read an English translation of the FCA Group's web site here.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

11-Speed Video

Reader Henri Karam sent us this video of the new 11-speed gruppo at the EICMA show in Milan. Nice stuff! (Note: This is a wide-screen video. To see it all, click here.)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Veloce Crankset Reviewed

British online site BikeRadar.com likes the new Veloce Ultra Torque crankset (read their article here). They scored the lowly Veloce as 9 out of 10 in terms of stiffness. As they point out, that's not bad for an alloy crankset, and similar to higher-priced carbon versions.

In fact, with Athena now out in 11-speed, riders who want an alloy crankset (some of us prefer them for aesthetic reasons only) have several great choices from Campagnolo.

Campyonlyguy Photo Wins Award

This photo by the Campyonlyguy won the "Best Portrait" award in the Davis Bike Club's annual March Madness photo contest. It shows our stepson, Willie, aboard our Campy-equipped Santana tandem. You can see all of the club's March photos here.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Our Other Passion: "Wheels North"

Your host, Campyonlyguy Eric Norris, has been involved for the past two years in planning a once-in-a-lifetime fundraising ride, Wheels North. Based on the historic 1909 ride of two young men from Santa Rosa, Wheels North will travel 1,000 miles across the western states to the University of Washington in Seattle.

Wheels North starts just one month from today! We will roll out of Santa Rosa on the morning of July 4th, starting our long journey northward.

We invite all of our Campy Only friends to join us online as we ride. The WN web site and our blog are both up and running--the blog will be updated daily (and potentially more often) while we ride.



And remember, you can still donate to our benefitting charity!