Bike Company Sharing More Than Pedal Power

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Bike Company Sharing More Than Pedal Power
Bike Nation CEO Navin Narang.

A new bike-share system should be up and running in Los Angeles a few months before a similar system rolls out in Long Beach – but it looks like Long Beach might have gotten a better deal.

A plan approved by the Long Beach City Council last month calls for Bike Nation USA to set up as many as 250 kiosks where customers will pay to borrow specially equipped bikes for brief rides in town. Though Bike Nation will cover the cost of the system – as much as $12 million over 10 years – the plan calls for Bike Nation to share some profits with the city.

The company in April announced it would set up an even larger, 400-kiosk system in Los Angeles, but that plan doesn’t include profit-sharing.

The difference? Long Beach chose Bike Nation, part of First Pacific Holdings LLC in Tustin, after a competitive bidding process that asked for profit-sharing. Los Angeles chose Bike Nation after the company submitted an unsolicited offer.

The L.A. offer didn’t mention profit sharing, though Derek Fretheim, Bike Nation’s chief operating officer, said the city could still get a cut.

“We’re open to profit sharing, but Long Beach is the only one that’s formalized at this point,” he said.

The Long Beach plan doesn’t include a detailed profit-sharing scheme, but city leaders and Bike Nation will discuss the idea after the system has been operational for 18 months. Fretheim said Bike Nation would like any profits shared with the city to fund additional bike or pedestrian infrastructure.

Long Beach is the third Southern California city to choose Bike Nation to run a bike-share program. City leaders hope to have at least a few kiosks open by February, and to eventually have as many as 250 kiosks and 2,500 bikes.

This month, Bike Nation will begin installing kiosks in Anaheim, where it will eventually have 10 kiosks and 100 bikes. And later this year, the company will start opening kiosks in downtown Los Angeles, including at Union Station and near Civic Center. In two years, Bike Nation plans to have a total of 400 kiosks and 4,000 bikes in Hollywood, Westwood, Venice and downtown.

The company, led by co-founder and Chief Executive Navin Narang, plans to invest about $30 million between the three systems, all of which are privately financed and will be run without subsidies.

Cloudy Vision

Is an acquisition ahead for Vision Industries Corp., the struggling Torrance startup that’s developing zero-emission trucks for use at local seaports?

In a filing last month, the publicly traded company announced it does not have enough cash or credit to support its operations and has hired an adviser to help find financing or make a deal with a potential buyer.

The company’s only paying customers thus far have been regulatory agencies and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. It had revenue of just $10,500 in the first six months of this year and a net loss of $2.7 million. In the past six months, the company lost a port contract because of production delays and was hit by a suit from a former employee for breach of contract and other claims.

But Jerome Torresyap, president of the company, said he has received numerous offers from firms interested in acquiring Vision or licensing its technology. Vision makes battery-powered trucks that go farther than other models because they’re recharged by an onboard hydrogen fuel cell.

“We’re in a unique situation in a very niche market. We’re always being propositioned as an add-on or a purchase,” Torresyap said.

He acknowledged that the company is looking more closely at such offers now. “You don’t move forward unless you have the input of investment advisers. We’re looking at all options,” he said.

Fresh Cheese

Since it was founded in 1984, Chatsworth importer Overseas Food Distribution has specialized in selling Middle Eastern products to ethnic markets. Its biggest brand? Golchin, which includes chickpeas, olive oil and other products sold mainly to Iranian and Eastern European markets.

But last month, Overseas started selling an imported Bulgarian feta cheese, with a decidedly American-sounding name, through Costco Wholesale Corp. stores. Called Country Road, the new brand is part of Overseas’ plan to sell to a much wider audience.

“I think it’s less intimidating for the American consumer when they see it written in English,” said Baze Melamed, Overseas Food chief executive. Golchin and other Overseas brands often include labeling in Farsi and other languages. “It’s kind of geared for the market as a whole.”

Overseas launched the Country Road brand two years ago, but distributed it only through local ethnic merchants. Now that the Country Road feta is in Costco, Melamed said he plans to expand the brand to include other Eastern European cheeses.

“We’re trying to bring different ethnic flavors from all over the world and introduce them to the mainstream American household,” he said.

Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.

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