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Company
From company headquarters in Reichshof-Wehnrath (near Cologne) the foremost bicycle tire in Germany and Western Europe has created an ultramodern logistics center to provide optimal service. The 100 staff of this family owned company succeeded in surpassing $50 million turnover this past year. The story of how this was achieved began like this:
1901
The Velocipede displaced the hand trolley. From the wooden, two-wheel " run machine " of Baron Karl von Drais was, after 50 years from its invention, superseded by the pedal-driven bicycle. The Ordinary, or Penny-farthing, disappears from the streets. At this time, in England, Ernst-Wilhelm Bohle creates the first Bohle enterprise in the developing bicycle industry.
1911
With a business partner, Ernst-Wilhelm Bohle sets up the bicycle manufacturer Phillips. It is the coronation year of George V. The German emperors arrive for a fifteen-day state visit to Great Britain.
1922
Eugen and Willy Bohle create an export business in Bergneustadt for the world-wide selling of bicycle components from German and European manufacturers. They supply among others its " affiliated firm " Phillips. In this year, for the first time, wireless pictures are sent from Berlin to the USA.
1955
Ralf Bohle takes over the business of his father Eugen. Postwar Germany is divided: recent, but strengthened parliamentary democracy on the one side, communism on the other. Year by year cars become generally more affordable to ordinary people. And motorized two-wheelers are in fashion. The German bicycle industry loses its export competitiveness and the Bohle export house has virtually no business.
1970
Oil crisis and the collapse of the world monetary system force reorientation. Bohle reacts with crucial steps towards the completely changed world market: Instead of exporting German components, it now imports from the Far East for German bicycle manufacturers. The good foreign contacts, nutured for decades, accelerate the enterprise.
1983
The republic dances to the " German New Wave ", the first VHS color Camcorder is shown at the Berlin Radio Exhibition and Bohle creates a legend: the " Marathon " Germany's first long lasting tire with high puncture resistance comes onto the market.
1995
The smart card replaces the medical insurance card, GDR identity cards become invalid, so that the Berlin Reichstag is spectacularly packed. Bohle invests into new company headquarters at Reichshof-Wehnrath. Logistics specialists develop an ultramodern distribution center.
2000
In the meantime the family's third generation take a hand: Ralf Bohle's son, Frank, becomes Sales & Marketing Director and son-in-law Holger Jahn, Technical Director.
The " Marathon " becomes the benchmark by which other tires are measured. As globetrotters like Wolfgang Reiche, who crossed five continents by bike in four years, trusts in the reliability of the long runner. Today this classic from the SCHWALBE range is the most-sold Touring and Trekking tire in the world.
Since the eighties and the Mountain Biking boom, the SCHWALBE Racing team has tested tires equally for extreme sportsmen and hobby cyclists. No product gets to the market, which does not reach perfection, through thorough testing and having the latest in high-technology.
Products that perform well for Mountain Bikers, cannot be expected to do the same for Road-racers. The Pros of the GS 1 Team Memory Card - Jack & Jones have successfully raced on SCHWALBE tires during their participation in the Tour de France. The successful recipe is no secret: The co-operation of bicycle professionals and Bohle technicians on thousands of training miles in all weather and all surfaces - is the ultimate " test track " for specially adapted tires.
This is the first commitment to road-racing. If one sees the development of this enterprise and its influence, it can logically be assumed that it will have long-term benefits, which will strengthen and secure success. Typically Bohle.
