Coronavirus induced lockdown has hit nation's significant businesses quite hard. On World Bicycle Day, cycle producing giant Atlas Cycles (Haryana) Ltd closed its Shahibabad unit in Uttar Pradesh due to financial constraints. The company, released a statement on Wedneday, said it is going to lay off staff as it is hard for company to meet even day-to-day expenses.
With this layoff, 700 lives will be affected by this shutdown as about 400 workers were directly dependent on the company’s operations while 300 more were indirectly benefiting from it.
The effects of its closure were also felt in Ludhiana where several units are used to supply bicycle parts to Atlas. Charanjeet Singh Vishvkarma, former President of United cycles parts and manufacturers association (UCPMA), said,” The company owes around Rs. 125 crore to vendors. My company has Rs. 20 lakh outstanding against Atlas. Even last year as well vendors had staged protests regarding pending payments. Only then the payments were released.”
Manjinder Singh Sachdeva, another member of UCPMA, said that GST rate needs to be uniform for sale and purchase of bicycle parts and the assembled bicycle.
“Wrong policies are bringing units in losses,” he said.
The Haryana-based company, which started manufacturing bicycles in 1951, produced its first bicycle the subsequent year. And in 1965, Atlas had emerged as India’s largest cycle manufacturer. It had already closed down two units in 2014 and 2018. While in December 2014, its Malanpur unit in Madhya Pradesh was closed down, it suspended manufacturing at its Sonipat unit in 2018.
But with the closure of Sahibabad unit, the company has closed down its last factory.
Achhru Ram Gupta, senior vice president of wholesale bicycle dealers association, said the latest closure is not a good sign. “Atlas was India’s first bicycle unit and its closure is not a good sign on the bicycle industry. This seems to be after effects of covid pandemic , some `package needs to be announced for bicycle industry on the whole.”
