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Burley faces growing competition in child-hauler market[Reprinted courtesy of the Daily Camera.]Eugene, Ore. —- For 25 years, children have seen the world -- or napped as it passed them by -- from inside Burley bicycle trailers. Tom Jacobs of Eugene regularly tows his two children around town in a Burley. He uses the trailer like a car, loading it with kids and groceries. "I often consider it my other vehicle," said Jacobs, a multimedia producer who commutes to work by bicycle. "I'd like a bumper sticker that says, 'My other car is a Burley trailer.'" Owners like Jacobs have made Eugene-based Burley Design Cooperative a household name among biking parents nationwide. Locally, the 25-year-old company is an icon, known for being owned and managed by its 85 employees, and for putting the environment first in its manufacturing methods. Burley says survey data indicate that it sells more child trailers -- its cornerstone product -- than any other company in the country. But competitors across the price spectrum are trying to chip away at Burley's market share. That's sparked a vigorous push by Burley to defend its key franchise. Burley recently redesigned its four high-end child trailers and one of its two cargo carriers, adding features without increasing prices. And it is introducing a no-frills trailer that is intended to beat back lower-priced competitors. Independent bicycle dealers have been asking for a lower-priced Burley for some time, said general manager Tom Wright-Hay. the Burley Bee, which will retail for $200, is the response to those requests. The Bee is as durable as Burley's pricier trailers, but has fewer features and is easier to manufacture, said Burley marketing manager Ronnel Curry. It will be sold alongside Burley's other trailers at independent bike shops and specialty sporting goods stores. But even with this relatively low-cost model, Burley still can't compete exclusively on price. Some discount stores carry bike trailers that are far cheaper. For example, at Wal-Mart, a Safety 1st bicycle trailer sells for $94. Burley is manufacturing the Bee at the co-op's west Eugene factory, Curry said. By contrast, most of the lower-priced rival models are made at factories in Asia, where labor costs are a fraction of Burley's. "The Asian competition is becoming a more formidable threat," Wright-Hay said. Burley has a fairly frugal labor cost structure, with all co-op members receiving the same hourly wage (Wright-Hay won't disclose what that is), plus annual profit sharing. But to keep a lid on costs, Burley hasn't ruled out eventually having some of its manufacturing done in Asia, he said. "It's really, really tough to compete with Wal-Mart," he said. Target, Wal-Mart, and GI Joe all now carry low-priced brands of bike trailers, Curry said. "When we first started making trailers, you couldn't get a trailer anyplace but an independent bicycle dealer," she said. But Burley faces plenty of competition from makers of spendy trailers, too. The main rivals include Trek of Waterloo, Wis., and Chariot, a firm in Calgary, Canada, that until recently made child bicycle trailers for Trek. Chariot last year began selling its trailers directly to independent bicycle dealers in the United States and poses significant competition for Burley, Wright-Hay said.
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