How this Kamloops, B.C., entrepreneur became the CEO of an international bike parts company
CBC
After eight years of owning and operating a specialized bike parts company in Kamloops, B.C., Dustin Adams was ready for a change.
“I think the timing was right,” he told CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops.
He said he’d been wanting to grow into the American market for awhile — even before Canada-U.S. tensions mounted amid a tariff war — when the opportunity arose.
Earlier this year, Adams sold his company, We Are One Composites, to Industry Nine, an international bike parts manufacturing company based in Asheville, N.C., becoming its CEO.
CBC’s Shelley Joyce spoke with Adams about the decision to sell, his new role and what it means for local employees.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get you started with your business, We Are One Composites?
That's a long story. The short and dirty version was I wanted to get back into the bike business after racing bikes for a number of years and felt like manufacturing bicycle parts was a good way to get into it. I had gained a lot of experience from owning a shop and learning machining and figured this would be a good venture to dig into, something that could be sizeable and a big challenge and I could focus all of my attention on and try to grow something unique and new for everybody within the area and in Canada as well.
You built rims for racers. Carbon fibre bike rims. What kinds of people buy a carbon fibre bike rim?
Generally, the craziest of them all. High-end mountain bike enthusiasts and mountain bikers was our target market. People who had maybe the odd screw loose and willing to risk their life here and there, that was kind of who we focused on selling product to.
Now you’ve sold your business to a U.S. company, right?
Yeah, Industry Nine. It was one of our largest customers actually.
We were trying to align with a company in the U.S. or even grow into the U.S. market with manufacturing. The expenses and the cost in front of us were always just a little bit too insurmountable.
Clint, the owner and founder of Industry Nine, was a great guy, and he came to the table with a reasonable offer. And I think it gave the company a better position over the long run and more opportunity to be a bigger company in the future. I really wanted to take care of the people, the employees as well.
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