The Eugene, Oregon, company that makes those distinctive kiddie trailers — as well as bicycles and other cycling equipment — is no longer a worker-owned cooperative.
Burley Design Cooperative is now Burley Design Inc., a privately held corporation. The change is a “last ditch attempt to save Burley,” according to a letter from the board of directors to workers that was obtained by the Register-Guard.
The company has suffered three year's of losses, says the Register-Guard, including about $1.5 million last year. The restructuring as a private corporation could make it easier to sell. The firm presently has about 50 worker-owners and 60 employees who do not own a stake.
Founders Beverly Anderson and Alan Scholz sold the company to its workers in 1978. Workers shared in the profits and losses of the company. About half the dividends were paid out to worker-owners, the rest were plowed back into the company as capital.
Like many other bike manufacturers, Burley has been creamed by the cheap labor costs and imports from Asia. Even so, its trailers are carried by 70% of the specialty bike stores in the US, company officials say.
My son would vouch for the Burley products. We remember many rides with him packed in the old yellow and red version; his long naps back there attest to its comfort.
Burley has an interesting history. Founder Scholz made bike bags as a side business to his bike shop in Fargo, North Dakota, beginning in 1969. Scholz's partner, Beverly Anderson, was a competitive cyclist and known as Burley Bev.
The two moved to Oregon in 1974 and continued to grow the business by selling biking clothes. They weren't comfortable as bosses, so they set up the cooperative structure. At about the same time, in 1978, they started making and selling trailers. In the late '80s they developed the folding trailer. Also, the company started assembling tandems.
It still makes trailers and tandems, but also road bikes, commuter bikes and recumbents.
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