PDF for download: Press release HP Velotechnik halves packaging waste (2,3 MB; December 16, 2019)

HP Velotechnik halves packaging waste

Trikes of the German recumbent manufactory are now going folded on their travels

Kriftel. The whole world is packing for Christmas. HP Velotechnik is making room for those packages so that they arrive on time! HP Velotechnik now ships its trikes in boxes that are only half the size they used to be. The reason for the long-prepared changeover in the shipping department, however, is not the concern about the loading capacities of the logisticians, explains Managing Director Daniel Pulvermüller with a smile. Rather, HP Velotechnik had to create space in the warehouse for their new series of Special Edition models. Thanks to the foldability of our trikes, the old, large boxes (210 x 98 x 67 centimeters) are now replaced with boxes measuring only 115 x 90 x 75 centimeters. These boxes are then attached to returnable Euro pallets.

The background: In contrast to the conventional custom specification design with several weeks of delivery time, the six Scorpion models of the Special Edition series will be “ready-to-ship” to the dealers at the beginning of January, prepared to ride and fully equipped. “In order to have enough trikes in stock, we had to change our previous packaging method from boxes the size of a one apartment,” says Pulvermüller, who is responsible for production and and logistics at the recumbent bike manufacturer. The fact that further positive effects are achieved as a result of this is a fourfold satisfaction for the managing director: “By halving packaging waste, we protect the environment, we save costs, the cartons can be stacked by one person and, finally, we reduce the risk of transport damage by using pallets.”

Almost all other trikes from Kriftel will also be shipped in these space saving boxes from now on. Almost – because HP Velotechnik can only supply the “half portions” for those Scorpions and Gekkos that are suitable for this purpose due to their patented folding hinge. “So far, only the owners of the trikes have benefited from folding, for example when they wanted to load them into the car or take them with them on the train,” explains Paul Hollants, Pulvermüller’s partner: “Earlier attempts to deliver the room-filling tricycles folded to the specialist dealers were not convincing.” Thanks to new packaging materials and successful adaptation, the trikes could now be delivered in a compact fashion.

******** Background HP Velotechnik ********

HP Velotechnik, founded in 1993 by Paul Hollants and Daniel Pulvermüller, manufactures approx. 2,000 recumbents per year in the factory in Kriftel near Frankfurt with 50 employees (including six trainees) and is thus market leader in Europe. The bikes are built individually by hand according to the customers wish and sold in specialist bicycle shops. All signs point to future growth: HP Velotechnik exports more and more bikes and trikes to more distant regions such as Australia, Japan, or South Africa. This successful business strategy was honored in 2017 with the “Hessian Export Prize”, which is jointly awarded by the State of Hesse and the Hessian Chambers of Crafts and Industry and Commerce. Most recently, the recumbent bike manufacturer received an award from the German Social Democratic Party (SPD): The grouping of the Working Group of the Self-employed in the Party presented the “AGS Award for Innovation 2019” for the “innovative mobility” of the bikes.

HP Velotechnik has developed 15 recumbent models that cover the entire range from everyday bikes to racing bikes. All models are available with powerful electric motors on request. Recently, the models from the Scorpion series caused a sensation, winning the renowned “Eurobike Award” design prize three times in a row. Most recently, in 2013 the trike Scorpion fs Enduro and in 2014 the Scorpion plus 20 as a therapy trike. The last time the Scorpion fs 26 S-Pedelec won this award at the world’s most important bicycle trade fair Eurobike was in 2018 as a vehicle in the fast class with pedal assistance up to 45 km/h.

Even as schoolchildren, the company founders Hollants and Pulvermüller became national winners of the JUTEC Youth and Technology competition of the Association of German Engineers – the foundation of the development from a garage laboratory to one of Germany’s most innovative bicycle companies. Since 2006 HP Velotechnik has been awarded as one of the three best bicycle manufacturers in Germany by the industry association VSF several times.

HP Velotechnik halves packaging waste

Trikes of the German recumbent manufactory are now going folded on their travels

Delta tx: Serial Production Started