Tabor

TABOR - PAST AND PRESENT

Tabor was established in 1965, after five local businesses in Águeda region, who manufactured bicycle saddles, operating in the same market realized that they weren't fully benefiting from the global potential market share.

Hence, they decided do organize and consolidate into a single company named ‘’Tabor, Organização Ciclista da Borralha Lda’’. All five companies stopped producing saddles, handling over all their production tools and know-how to Tabor.

During the 70's, Tabor acknowledged a market opportunity to start building shock absorbers and suspension forks for bikes. This was a strong market in Águeda region and continued to be so until late 80's.

During the 90's the motorcycle market suffers a profound change: new international players come into action in Portugal and the local businessmen weren't able to survive the aggressive competition.

In the bicycle segment things weren't going so well either: for once, the Portuguese market began importing parts from Asian countries, among which the bicycle saddles and on another hand, the traditional leather saddle which once played an important role of Tabor sales, was going out of fashion...

In 2001, a company named "Ciclo Fapril" grabs hold of an important share of Tabor's capital.

Although the leather saddle market, product that gave birth to Tabor, went through a critical business crisis, nowadays it stands as a very interesting niche of sales, almost a gourmet product, namely in the northern European countries due to this type of saddle being very comfortable and also because of the exponential growth of urban/city bicycles who usually are equipped with a larger, springier saddle model  where product weight begins to be irrelevant, as the customer opts for the ultimate quality comfort and a more traditional look for his bike.

Tabor never stopped producing leather saddles, giving priority to maintain the handcrafted processes, thus keeping alive the memory of past times were the bicycle was considered the principal means of transportation, now perceived along its comfort, as a symbol of "status quo" and personal identity in the city.

Sustainability, integrity, customer satisfaction and social awareness are some of the values that allowed Tabor to keep manufacturing high quality bicycle saddles until today.