I was surfing over at Roadbikereview and someone posted that Campy components are no longer made in Italy. According to this thread they are now produced in Romania.

Any truth to this?

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-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

I also read about this. Fact is that the last quality check of the products is still in Italy. I guess it has to do with lower production costs to stay competitive with the other players in the market.

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Cannondale for life!

I've never thought of Romania as a manufacturing powerhouse... any other industries outsourcing manufacturing/assembly to Romania?

So, what's the likely hood of cheaper campy components as a result of this move?

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Rule #1. Superheroes Wear Tights

There's alot of precision engineering going on out there, it used to be of questionable quality but from some of the work i've inspected recently the engineering proffession is alive and well over there, unlike here in the UK where it seems that labour rates are way too high by comparison.

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Guildford/Woking is the home of F1.
We make loads of other stuff here too.

Romania- a manufacturing powerhouse?
hell yeah! well thats where my job will be in 2 years time,(probably).

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Official cafe stop tester

You think descendants of the great count Dracula are overseeing Campagnolo production? Is this all grades of Campy? or just some of the lower?

Bottom of the line Mavic wheels are already made there, if i am right...

Italy has low salaries compared to Nothern Europe, but Romania and Eastern Europe in general has much lower salaries than Southern Europe.
But I'm sure Campagnolo will try to keep is a secret as long as possible. Many customres buys Campy, Colnago etc. mostly for the reason that it's made in Italy for some odd reason, just because Italy has a long history in bike manufacturing.

This practice is becoming more commonplace...

Colnago - Some frames are now being produced in Taiwan

Assos - R&D etc remains in Switzerland but Assos have 'assembly' plants in Slovenia, Bulgaria and Greece.


These big companies wish to take advantage of lower wage costs so they outsource manufacture/assembly to these countries. Whilst this practice dilutes the 'made in italy' or 'made in switzerland' marketing tags, IMHO, they do not appear to have affected the quality of the products. Indeed, it could be argued that lower salary costs firstly, make the product less expensive for the customer or enable the companies themselves to invest more in R&D (and of course make more profit )

I had heard somewhere maybe a year ago that only Record (maybe Chorus) and the highest-end wheels were still made in Italy. I think that if companies want to place labels they should be required to specify where the item is actually made/assembled, which could be different than where designed.

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Aero beats weight - unless you're slow!

I got a confirmation (right spelling?) from the shop where I usually go about Campy moving their production in Romania.
To confirm what he said there's the fact that last July/August for some time it was difficult to get stuff from Campy as they were moving their factory.

....but of course what are the citizens of your home countries to do for work when all the jobs are outsourced. Eventually there will be no one there to buy the products because they are all jobless and homeless.

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This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.

Or they move into service industries and hi-tech, like you see in the UK. There is always also room for niche manufacturers. Look at the UK unemployment figures over the last 20 years and the removal of traditional industry at the same time. Employment has increased, not decreased.

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http://worksrider.wordpress.com/

I agree as I see the same thing in my state. The problem is that all the jobs being created are retail with pay and benefits that are very poor at best. I don't want my children’s ambition to be a greeters at Walmart!

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-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

It's called "the race to the bottom" aka: destroying the middle-class, but that's all another topic.

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Aero beats weight - unless you're slow!