“Giant Interview” series

“Giant Interview” series, Bonnie Tu: Liv is my lifelong ambition;

Bonnie Tu, chairperson of Giant Group

   Liv, the world's only women's bicycle brand founded by Giant's Chairperson, Bonnie Tu, showed a 32% increase in revenue last year, accounting for about 8% of the Group's revenue. Based on this impressive achievement, a newer goal of “10% of the Group's annual revenue” will be brought on the agenda and will be gradually propelled.

   “If YouBike is the ambition of King Liu (founder of the Giant Group), then Liv is mine!” Bonnie Tu not only gave birth to the Liv brand, but also is the best spokesperson for the brand, she has ridden Liv bicycle around the island many times, and has even ridden the Liv bicycle to surmount the Taiwanese cycling mecca - Wuling. In July this year, Bonnie Tu personally flew to France to participate in the first Women's Tour de France sponsored by Liv, and participated in the last section of approximately 66 kilometers of the fourth race, climbing 990 meters, and cycling on the gravel road of vineyard, which is not only a rare experience, but also the light of Taiwan's bicycle industry.

   As a woman, Bonnie Tu is full of hope for the women's bicycle market. She said that cycling is a sport that originated in Western countries, and an Asian brand has to fight its way to the market rather than say too much, but from the very beginning, Giant has been very supportive for women, for example, Liv was the first to send African Americans to Europe to participate in professional cycling team, Liv also supported Muslim women cycling, and supported Singaporean and Filipino-American athletes to enter road races. In addition, in the business operation of the Giant company itself, the proportion of female managers is much higher than that of other companies, accounting for nearly 30%, including Zheng Qiuju, general manager of Giant in Taiwan, former general manager of the US branch, and two female general managers in Europe, all of them are excellent female representatives in this industry.

   When Bonnie Tu participated in the first Women's Tour de France in July this year, she was deeply moved, “because when I got there, I found out that we were the only bicycle brand that was invited.” She said that most of the sponsors are mass merchandisers such as Carrefour, or financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies, and unexpectedly there was also a bicycle brand, “because it is the women's Tour de France, the organizers specifically invited us/Liv, we are the only female bicycle brand in this industry, and I am also the only Taiwanese industry representative who was invited to ride bicycle in the Women's Tour de France ProAm. During the entire process of Tour de France, there is a sea of Liv flags, this feeling is really very special!”

=================================================================================================================================

“Giant Interview” Young Liu: strongly recommend bicycling ecosystem

Young Liu, Chief Executive Officer of Giant Group

   Giant Group is actively seeking transformation, Giant will not only sell bicycles, but also create a “bicycling ecosystem” the future. Young Liu said, marketing of terminal products should consider the life of people, many people are talking about the consumer experience, Giant’s opinion regarding bicycling ecosystem is to: integrate the five links of “People, Bicycle, Shop, Riding, and Network” together, so that consumers can happily experience the feeling of riding.

   In the past two years, in the face of the epidemic, the Giant Group has promoted the bicycling ecosystem during this period of time, and the “Giant Travel Agency” has helped the people arrange cycling around the island. Young Liu said that since its establishment more than a decade ago, Giant Travel Agency has served many people, and it is necessary to “provide consumers with value-added experience, and let consumers appreciate the services you provide, or be moved by the services you provide.”

   Young Liu further explained that as shown in a year's time, Giant Travel Agency takes an average of 8,000 persons to ride around the island. Different from the general mass tourism, choosing bicycles for low-carbon travel is not only environmentally friendly, but also allows you to see the beautiful scenery of all parts of Taiwan and enjoy the most authentic fine food. In addition to standard itineraries, Giant Travel Agency also provides customized exclusive itineraries for enterprise groups or individuals, attracting many overseas cycling travel enthusiasts to Taiwan through intimate services, “especially E-bike is available at present, more people can easily ride and realize their dream of circumnavigating Taiwan at least once in a lifetime.”

   An objective reality is that about 82% of the people in Taiwan do not ride bicycles. However, Young Liu believes that as long as 1% of these people join in and change their mind about cycling, it will be great. “After many people participated in the nine-day, 900-kilometer bicycle tour, they had a different perception of bicycling and Taiwan, and felt that Taiwan is really beautiful, and agreed that it's great to ride a bicycle around the island!

   Young Liu was also suddenly inspired to say that if there is a chance in the future, Giant Travel Agency will come up with a book of “Michelin Snack”, because when Giant Travel Agency takes riders to cycle around the island, riders will eat all kinds of snacks in Taiwan, “There is no snack that they don't know!”. It will be a rare opportunity to lead riders to cycle in different places and try those special snacks.

   From the point of view of consumer's experience, the Giant Group will reversely consider the demand of the consumer. “What do consumers expect us to do?” Young Liu said that in the next few years, the Giant will connect people, bicycle, shop, cycling, and network, so that more consumers can experience the beauty of bicycling.

===================================================================================================================================

“Giant Interview”: make preparation to establish Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability and strive for carbon rights

Giant Group Chairperson Bonnie Tu (left) and CEO Young Liu

    Net zero carbon emissions have become a worldwide trend, as a leading enterprise in the global bicycle industry, in June this year, Giant Group called on 33 leading enterprises in Taiwan's bicycle industry to jointly establish the preparatory committee of “Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability (BAS)”, so as to create an exclusive platform of the bicycle industry, let all enterprises work together through interaction, communication and mutual learning, further propose the sustainability initiative of the bicycle industry, give full play to the power of 1+1>2, and stride towards the sustainability vision together.

   On October 27, members of the “Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability” will gather at the headquarter of the Giant Group to participate in the Industry Summit Forum, and big shots in the global bicycle industry, including TREK, SCOTT, SHIMANO, SRAM, etc., will also attend this event.

   Young Liu, who serves as the chairperson of the preparatory committee of the “Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability”, revealed that the “Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability” will speak out to the EU to strive for bicycle carbon right, “Tesla can make money by selling carbon right, cars have carbon right, why don't bicycles?” While encouraging consumers to ride bicycles, Giant should also establish consumers' carbon reduction concept, therefore, Giant not only takes the initiative to launch a “carbon reduction cycling passport”, but also convenes peer companies to rethink how to reduce carbon emissions and promote the “carbon footprint” certification of individual products starting from the manufacturing and selection of design materials.

   “Although the Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability was just established not long ago, there are a lot of things that it wants to do. Young Liu said with a bitter smile, it was planned to hold a grand inaugural meeting of “Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability” on October 27, but due to the reason that Ministry of the Interior has not granted official document for approval, I'm afraid that it will be too late for the meeting, “really regrettable”, the current schedule is set to formally establish the “Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability” on December 1.

   Bonnie Tu also said, “This is a very meaningful work. Taiwan has a bicycle industry leading the world, and should really call on everyone to make efforts for improvement from material acquisition to every link of the production process.” She emphasized that other industries have to take the customer's ideas into consideration, “Only Taiwan's bicycle industry has the influence for guiding the world!”

   Bonnie Tu further said that EU will impose carbon border tax soon, and Giant begun to prepare for ESG practice very early. Starting from optimizing the production process of factories in Taiwan and mainland China - saving energy, improving waste treatment and reducing air pollution, after start of the work, it is found out that it is impossible to reduce carbon all by yourself, so “everyone has to make joint efforts”, therefore, Giant has invited peer companies to make joint effort to change consumer habits together.

   Therefore, starting from the source, the “Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability” promotes the industry to reduce carbon emissions in material acquisition and manufacturing process. When Bonnie Tu heard that many large enterprises directly purchased green electricity to practice carbon reduction, she said frankly: “Only buying green electricity should not be regarded as real carbon reduction! We look for real carbon reduction, to come straight to the point, we will reduce carbon emissions in the material acquisition and manufacturing process.” She stressed that it is difficult to strive for carbon rights for bicycles, but it is important to give the industry a vision.

   Young Liu also went on to say, “When we explain such practice and intentions to customers, the first in command of OE which is Giant’ largest customer in Europe decided to fly to Taiwan personally on the 27th to attend the industry forum; the largest customer in the United States was also very excited when hearing that we were going to do this and said they were willing to support us to do such a meaningful thing.”

   As a result, Young Liu, who is the chairperson of the preparatory committee for the Bicycling Alliance for Sustainability, went one step further and put forward three specific ideas to implement this concept: firstly, integrate internal and external resources of Taiwan, Europe and the United States to strive for “bicycle carbon rights”; secondly, promote the “Carbon Reduction Cycling Passport”. Thirdly, propel “carbon footprint” certification.

   Young Liu did not conceal the fact that it is very difficult to strive for carbon rights, but after careful research, he still found a breakthrough, that is to help consumers with cycling services, find out some simple “carbon reduction cycling passports”, calculate carbon reduction credit for each time of cycling, and then accumulate these credits into everyone's electronic passport. In the future, with a carbon reduction passport, you can get discounts for buying a bus ticket, watching a movie or eating food.

   As for the carbon footprint, Young Liu said that there was no formulaic/modular certification in the past, and he hopes that impartial units such as the Institute of Technology and Research or Bicycle R&D Center can assist individual products in terms of the “carbon footprint” certification in the future. According to the results of the market survey, more than 70% of consumers are willing to spend 10％～30％ more or even higher price to buy products with “carbon footprint”. He is quite confident about this idea.

   Young Liu stressed that the Giant Group has a certain influence in the global bicycle industry, and the propositions put forward this time are indeed quite a lot, but every customer whom we have contacted is very serious about this matter, “Our customers believe that after transformation through this approach, the prospects of the bicycle industry are promising!”