How a coincidence became a stroke of luck
The history of the Bluemels mudguards
Bluemels is a strange word. It sounds a bit like the diminutive form of Blumen, the German word for flowers, but it has nothing to do with plants. But rather with deeply rooted structures that can be found not only in the company SKS GERMANY, but also in a traditional English company. Find out about the history of Bluemels mudguards in this blog.
London in 1860
It was the year 1860 when C. W. Bluemel and Brothers Ltd. was founded in the east of London by Charles William Bluemel. The bicycle products gained an excellent reputation and the company expanded rapidly. In 1902, production was relocated to Coventry. The company’s portfolio was constantly expanding and included parts for motorcycles and the automotive industry. In the 1940s, sons Frank William and Roland Edward Bluemel continued the expansion, producing car parts for Jaguar and Austin Martin, among others.
A groundbreaking discovery
The company had to declare insolvency in the 1980s. In 1983, the then SKS Managing Director Willi Blome received the note from a British bicycle wholesaler: A takeover of the Bluemels pump production facilities is certainly worthwhile. A tip that should turn out to be groundbreaking for the company SKS, which at that time only produced bicycle pumps. During the tour in Coventry, the SKS team also discovered machines for the production of mudguards and it was decided to take over these production facilities as well.
Off to pastures new
In 1985, a group of SKS employees travelled to England together with Willi Blome and Operations Manager Walter Scheffer to dismantle the Bluemels machines and prepare them for transport to Germany. This work took several weeks and in the end, ten articulated trucks were ready to set out on their journey. After many tests as well as restructuring and expansion measures in the new SKS mudguard production facilities, the first order for the company Hercules was finally produced in winter 1985.
The Bluemels success story
After starting the Bluemels production, SKS GERMANY developed other mudguards and continuously expanded the product range. As an original bicycle equipment manufacturer, SKS delivered to 90 countries worldwide at the beginning of the 1990s. Today the Bluemels mudguards are popular classics. They are continuously optimised to suit the requirements of modern bicycles. In this way, the traditional English brand lives on – through a coincidence that became a stroke of luck.
