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HED wins FedEx small biz grant to boost in-house manufacturing, teases new products

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2015 HED Jet Black and Ardennes Black road tubeless wheels

Monday, July 13th, was the birthday of the late Steve Hed, co-founder of HED Cycling. It’s also the day his wife and company head Anne learned they were one of 10 winners of the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. They were awarded $7,500, which will toward the purchase of a new CNC machine, which will further expand their in-house manufacturing capabilities. We fired off a few questions to see what they had in mind once it’s ready to start cutting…

BIKERUMOR: What products do you currently manufacture in house?

HED: About 99 percent of our carbon fiber rims are made in house. Jets, stingers, discs, Big Deals. We have two CNC machines that cut all of our molds as well as texture the black series rims.

BIKERUMOR: What do you plan on producing in house that they’re not making now?

HED: Our carbon rim line will expand (you’ll just have to wait and see)! We know carbon so it is an easy transition to other products.

BIKERUMOR: What’s the timeline for starting to crank out these new products?

HED: Very soon!

BIKERUMOR: What’s the benefit of moving more production in house?

HED: The benefits are better quality control and reduced lead times. The other side effect of in house production is that new product development moves a lot faster. It also gives you the opportunity to innovate processes to make the product better or less expensive without worrying that you have shown a supplier how to make everyone else’s product better as well.

The 2016 FedEx Small Business Grant Contest was open to U.S.-based for-profit small businesses that have less than 50 employees and have been operating for six months or more.

HEDcycling.com

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Cedrick J Gousse
Cedrick J Gousse
7 years ago

Maybe I’m confused…. 7,500? Thats like the sale of two wheelsets. HED is a pretty large company, I have to imagine they have larger scale than that. Maybe the decimal was in the wrong place?

6ix
6ix
7 years ago

Was thinking the same thing. A good 5-axis mill costs $75K+. Whatever the case, good for them!! They are definitely deserving of it.

swift
swift
7 years ago

wrong decimal or just building up hype with some bs grant story

Robin
Robin
7 years ago
Reply to  swift

I think its a big statement to say “…some bs grant story” No doubt, that’s the comment of a real industry insider.

Mike.
Mike.
7 years ago

A good 5-axis mill is like $300k+.

Pedals
Pedals
7 years ago

Nope, just $7500.

the biz
the biz
7 years ago

two advertisements in one article. score!

Ross Shepherd
Ross Shepherd
7 years ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if $7500 is correct. Margins aren’t usually big for the manufacturer and then you’ve got employees to pay etc. The amount of money left over from the sale of one wheelset that’s free to be reinvested in equipment is probably very small.

tyler
tyler
7 years ago

$7500…So the tooling for a CNC machine?

Mitch
Mitch
7 years ago

@Cedrick
It looks like they entered for a chance to win a $25,000 grant but didn’t get it. Check out the link to the FedEx Contest in the article.

steve balmer
7 years ago

7,500 indeed – that does seem small relative to the size of company I thought that they were (having sponsored some rather large teams and all) … doesn’t strike me as a small business but free money none the less and great wheels.

http://smallbusinessgrant.fedex.com

T Turner
T Turner
7 years ago

Yep, the 7500 probably covered the cost of the video.. at least they did not loose money. And yes, HED and FedEx gets promoted. Welcome to the world of small busines advertising. Well done.

Amp
Amp
7 years ago

Less than 50 employees is a pretty small company. OEMs are where the big number are at and Hed hasn’t done that until recently, and only with Cervelo, so nothing like the OEMs Zipp has. I’d bet Zipp has twice that number of people rebuilding all of their recalled front wheels.

Hed’s most popular wheelsets cost about $800 to $1K too, and I’d bet they make $200 each time they sell one. The bike shop selling it probably makes more on it.

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