SAN DIEGO (BRAIN) — BST Nano Carbon, a design and composites manufacturer, has acquired Ellsworth Handcrafted Bicycles and will be manufacturing Ellsworth carbon frames in its San Diego facility. Ellsworth founder Tony Ellsworth will oversee the brand's product design and work closely with BST Nano to create model year 2015 Ellsworth bicycles.
"It did happen fairly quickly, over the last 60 to 90 days. But it's pretty exciting for me to bring a lot of our carbon production back to the U.S.," said Tony Ellsworth, who founded the company 25 years ago.
"One of the exciting new things is we will relaunch the Ellsworth road line with new models produced here in San Diego using proprietary materials and processes," he said.
BST Nano Carbon's main business is manufacturing composites for the sporting goods and military industries. The company is launching a new bicycle brand, Synergy Nano, at Interbike, showing a full line of carbon wheels and components that Ellsworth helped design. The Ellsworth brand will focus on bicycle frames and bikes.
"Our team has made high-end bike components on an OEM basis for many years. We appreciate Tony's design brilliance and have had our eye on the Ellsworth brand for some time," said William Wood, BST Nano Carbon's senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. "In addition, we are committed to a strategy that promotes globally, but relies on independent, local bike shops throughout the country and around the world," he said.
