Merida Industry Co., Ltd.

Merida Industry Co., Ltd. is a Taiwanese bicycle and e-bike manufacturer headquartered in Changhua, Taiwan, and listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 9914. Founded in 1972, the company reported consolidated revenue of TWD 32.10 billion (approximately USD 1.02 billion) in 2025 on shipments of roughly 2.1 million bicycles and e-bikes. Around 4,000 employees serve customers in more than 80 countries.

Company Overview

Merida is unusual among bicycle manufacturers in that it earns its revenue twice over from the same factories. The group builds and sells bicycles under its own Merida brand through a global dealer network, and it also manufactures frames and complete bicycles on contract for other companies. The OEM side of the business predates the brand and remains substantial, which gives the company an unusual degree of resilience: when consumer demand weakens, contract orders from brands that do not own factories help keep the lines running.

The balance has shifted over time toward higher-value products. Europe, where electrically assisted bicycles dominate the market and average selling prices are several times higher than in Asia, now accounts for more than 55% of Merida revenue. Mainland China contributes roughly a quarter. To stay close to that European demand, Merida established an R&D centre in Germany, where product specifications for the e-bike models European dealers order are developed and refined.

Competitive Advantages

Manufacturing depth is the foundation. The Dadun headquarters plant in Changhua covers more than 150,000 square metres and handles carbon-fibre frame production — a capability relatively few companies in the world possess at scale. Alongside it, facilities in Shenzhen, Shandong and Jiangsu provide the aluminium frame and complete-bike capacity needed for volume orders. Total group capacity is roughly 2.5 million bicycles a year.

The 49% holding in Specialized Bicycle Components is the second distinguishing asset. It produces investment income, ties Merida into the supply chain of one of the most valuable premium bicycle brands, and provides early visibility into where high-end product development is heading.

The third advantage is the two-sided business model itself. Companies that only own brands must absorb every downturn in consumer demand; companies that only manufacture on contract have no brand equity to fall back on. Merida has both, and can shift emphasis between them as conditions change.

Challenges Ahead

That same model creates its hardest operational problem. Contract manufacturing and own-brand production draw on identical capacity, and when component supply is unpredictable or a major customer changes its order pattern, somebody's delivery slips. Deciding which orders to prioritise is a permanent source of tension rather than a solvable problem.

Category cyclicality compounds it. Bicycles and e-bikes remain discretionary purchases, and the inventory correction that ran through the European market from 2023 into 2025 pushed the entire industry into discounting that compressed margins across both the branded and contract sides of the business. Merida's own brand also carries less pricing power than the premium labels it manufactures for, which caps how much margin improvement product development alone can deliver.

The recovery path depends on European e-bike restocking continuing through 2026 and on Merida holding its position with the brands that depend on its factories — a position that becomes more valuable the more of the industry outsources frame production.

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