There’s some big news in the car-seat-business world.
First, Evenflo and Cybex have been acquired by Goodbaby, a China-based juvenile products company. Goodbaby says that acquiring these two companies will help it expand its market, with Cybex providing high-end products and Evenflo appealing to the mid- to “value-range” segment. You can read more about the Cybex acquisition here, and the Evenflo acquisition here. 
Balancing things out, Dorel is working on acquiring the Lerado Group, one of China’s largest juvenile-product manufacturers. This move will give Dorel its first company-owned factories in Asia, with three facilities in China and a fourth in Taiwan. Also included is a crash-test laboratory similar to ones Dorel already has in the US and Europe. You can read more about this transaction here.
It’s interesting to note that various other car seat manufacturers use Lerado Group facilities to produce their products in China. It is unclear if this means that some manufacturers will be unlikely to continue using them once Dorel takes over.
Well..yuck. )-;
Let me preface this by saying I hate change, but I’m leery of Goodbaby’s intentions. As a parent I want to support a car seat industry that prides itself on making the safest car seats (in all regards:a seat needs to be safe, easy enough to use that there are little to no misuse issues, and be priced so that all income levels have the ability to safely restrain their children). Goodbaby’s intention is that it wants to expand its market? Is that because they wants to to provide the above three points to more parents? Or because they want as much revenue from the car seat market as they can get? Just thinking out loud here. It will be interesting to see how this goes over time.
I wonder what this might mean for Evenflo customer service?
Cybex in the USA is the same company as Cybex in Europe, right? Might this mean Evenflo coming to Europe, too?
Interesting.
Wonder how much things are going to change with Cybex once they’re out of the hands of Regal Lager. 🙁 I like those guys!