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149YEARS a long tradition of quality and precision
Established in 1867 in Couvet, Switzerland – an area that would soon become world-renowned for precision machining, watch manufacturing, and microelectronics – Edouard Dubied & Co initially produced high-quality knitting machinery. In 1878 the company added lathes and milling machinery, which it sold worldwide until 1987. Dubied began manufacturing high-quality automotive and bicycle components as early as 1902 under the name edco, an acronym for Edouard Dubied & Co; the company started producing hubs and bottom brackets in 1930. edco has long been known for its innovation, including a patent in 1975 for a sealed bottom bracket assembly – considered standard equipment today. By 1988 the company was focusing on bicycle components, though it continued to provide worldwide service for Dubied machinery and contract manufacturing for other industries. In 1993 the company released IGP, an integrated system with shift levers on the brake lever matched with hydraulic brake calipers. And 2000 saw the release of the SuperG hub, a design that has since been copied many times over. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s edco designed, engineered, and manufactured bicycle components for a number of other brands. In 2007, Dutch inventor and engineer Rob van Hoek acquired the company, renamed it Edco Engineering BV, and relocated the design, engineering, testing, and assembly operations to ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. As hub components continued to be produced in Couvet, the focus changed to the expanding carbon wheel market. Innovations continued with the introduction of the Multisys freehub body, whose patented design allows for Shimano/SRAM or Campagnolo cassettes to be tted without modi cations. And in 2015 the company added its own carbon and composite manufacturing facility in China, where edco weaves raw carbon fabric to exacting speci cations, formulates and impregnates resins using state-of-the-art chemical technology, and molds and nishes the nal product. Today, edco’s advantage lies in its ability to design, engineer, and manufacture its products through complete control of the entire process.
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