On World Bicycle Day, Atlas Cycles shuts shop

On Wednesday (June 3), when the world was celebrating International Bicycle Day, the famous cycle manufacturing brand, Atlas Cycles (Haryana) Limited, shut shop due to financial constraints.

The company pasted a notice outside its production plant in Sahibabad which said that it was not in a position to resume manufacturing operations. It further noted that the workforce of Sahibabad unit would be laid off until adequate arrangement of funds are made.

“Post lifting of lockdown with effect from June 1, 2020, Sahibabad unit of the company is not in a position to resume manufacturing operations due to financial constraints. Hence, the workforce of Sahibabad unit of the company will be laid off with effect from June 3, 2020, till adequate arrangement of funds is made,” the company said.

The announcement rendered over 700 workers jobless and uncertain over their future. “This notice should have been given in advance, at least a week before to the employees. We were called to duty for two days and then suddenly we found this notice pasted today. Many people will be jobless and forced to fend for themselves if the management goes ahead with this decision,” Mahesh Kumar, a leader of the workers' union from the unit told Hindustan Times.

He added that close to two lakh cycles used to be produced in the factory per month.

The Haryana-based company started manufacturing bicycles in 1951, rolling out 12,000 Atlas Cycles out of the shed at Sonepat. There was no looking back since then. The first consignment of Atlas Cycles was sent overseas in 1958. Atlas reached new peaks after it started exporting bicycles to several countries.

However, things started going downhill over the past six years when it 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.

Following the closure of the Malanpur unit, the company had only one operational unit at Sahibabad in Uttar Pradesh. But with the Sahibabad unit now shut, the company has closed down its last factory.