Avanti bikes are owned by Sheppard Cycles under Scott Sports, designed in NZ/AU, and built by contracted factories in Asia.
Who Makes Avanti Bikes? Ownership Snapshot
Avanti is a bicycle brand that started in New Zealand in 1985. The brand sits inside Sheppard Cycles (also called Sheppard Industries), a long-running Australasian bicycle company. In 2015, Scott Sports SA, the Swiss group behind Scott bikes and Syncros, took an equity stake in Sheppard. By late 2017, the Struthers family, who founded Avanti, sold their remaining holding, leaving Sheppard under the Scott Sports umbrella. Day to day, product strategy and design are handled by Sheppard’s team in New Zealand and Australia; factories in Asia manufacture frames and assemble most complete bikes to those specifications.
Who Makes Avanti Bicycles By Company And Region
The “makers” are a split team: brand and engineering staff in Auckland and Melbourne who specify frames and parts, and the manufacturing partners in Asia who build the frames and assemble most complete bikes. That model is standard across the global bicycle industry because Taiwan and parts of China host dense supplier networks, skilled carbon lay-up shops, and high-volume assembly lines. High-end track and road projects still start with Avanti’s engineers, test riders, and suppliers, then move to production lines that are tooled for accuracy and repeatability.
Avanti Ownership Timeline And Structure
This table lays out the brand’s ownership path and who does what today.
| Year/Period | Event | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Avanti launches in New Zealand | Local brand founded by John Struthers under Sheppard |
| 1991 | Australian expansion | Sister company opens; wider range and dealer network |
| 2000s | Racing program ramps | Track, road, and tri projects sharpen product design |
| 2015 | Scott Sports takes equity in Sheppard | Start of integration with a global sports group |
| 2017 | Founders sell remaining shares | Sheppard comes fully under Scott Sports ownership |
| 2018–Now | Avanti as Scott Sports brand | Design in NZ/AU; production with Asian OEM partners |
| Today | Retail via My Ride and dealers | Sales, service and warranty supported locally |
Where Are Avanti Bikes Built?
Most Avanti frames and complete bikes are produced by contract manufacturers in Asia, especially Taiwan and China. That’s where the world’s bicycle supply chain lives: carbon pre-preg suppliers, tube makers, paint shops, wheel builders, and assembly plants are clustered together. This clustering keeps quality consistent across price points and shortens lead times when the brand updates a model or reacts to parts availability. It also explains why many premium brands you know are “Designed in” one country and “Made in” another—the engineering is done at home, while the specialist fabrication happens in the Asian bike hub.
Why Brands Use Asian OEM Factories
The gains are clear: expertise with carbon lay-ups, access to hydroformed alloy tubing, automated bonding lines, and an ecosystem of component vendors within a day’s truck ride. For a mid-sized brand such as Avanti, that means a lighter, stiffer race frame or a tougher e-MTB chassis can be delivered without owning a factory. Quality control starts with the brand’s drawings, testing standards, and sign-off, then continues on the factory floor through batch checks, torque logs, and destructive tests. That shared diligence is why two bikes at different price points can still feel well-sorted on the road or trail.
What’s Still Done In New Zealand And Australia
Product direction, geometry charts, ride testing, graphics, and launch plans are run by Sheppard’s product group. Sponsored riders and local teams feed back handling notes, sizing tweaks, and durability issues. That loop explains why an Avanti commuter or kids’ bike tends to fit riders in New Zealand and Australia well: the fit and spec suit local roads, paths, and weather.
Avanti And The Scott Sports Group
Being part of a larger group matters. Scott Sports adds scale for carbon sourcing, component allocation, and logistics. Trade coverage has listed Avanti among Scott Sports’ owned brands, and New Zealand business reports documented the staged sale that put Sheppard under Scott’s wing. Sheppard’s own site lists Avanti among its brands in Australia and New Zealand, which lines up with what you’ll see in My Ride stores. That shared footprint helps with warranty stock and tech training.
How To Decode Avanti’s Model Range
Whether you’re eyeing a Montari hardtail, Corsa road bike, Giro F series, or Discovery commuter, the “maker” story remains the same: design and spec at home, manufacturing in Asia, dealer support locally. The spread runs from alloy recreational bikes to full-carbon aero road frames and modern e-bikes with mid-drive motors. Here’s a quick cheat sheet that maps common Avanti categories to typical materials and where production usually sits.
Product Families, Materials And Typical Production
| Family | Common Materials/Tech | Typical Production Region |
|---|---|---|
| Road (Corsa, Chrono) | Monocoque carbon, internal routing | Taiwan OEM carbon specialists |
| Gravel | Alloy or carbon, thru-axles | Taiwan or China assembly |
| MTB (Montari, Competitor) | Hydroformed alloy, carbon on top models | Taiwan for frames; China for some assembly |
| E-Bikes (Discovery-e, Montari-e) | Alloy frames, mid-drive systems | Taiwan/China e-bike lines |
| Urban/Trekking (Inc, Discovery) | Alloy frames, hub dynamos, racks | China assembly lines |
| Kids | Alloy frames, simple drivetrains | China OEM partners |
| Track/Performance Projects | Custom carbon, race-team input | Prototyped locally, produced in Asia |
Proof Points From Public Sources
You can see Avanti listed on Sheppard’s brands page, and New Zealand media covered the sale of the founders’ remaining shares to Scott Sports in 2017; see the NZ Herald report. Trade press has referenced Avanti as part of the Scott Sports Group; a clear example is this Bike-EU article. For context on why so much bicycle manufacturing sits in Taiwan and nearby hubs, see Le Monde’s industry overview.
What “Made By Avanti” Means Day To Day
In practical terms, Avanti “makes” bikes by doing the bits that decide how a bike rides and holds up: geometry, carbon lay-up schedules, alloy tube shapes and wall thicknesses, fork offsets, spec choices, and paint. The physical frame and many wheelsets roll out of partner factories that build for multiple brands. That’s not a knock; it’s a strength when you want consistent resin cure cycles, precise miters, and tidy cable ports. Ride feel still comes from the drawings and the bill of materials the brand signs off, then enforces with lab testing and field miles.
How To Tell Where Your Avanti Came From
Check The Frame Sticker
Look under the bottom bracket or on the seat tube. Most frames carry a country-of-origin decal. You’ll often see “Made in Taiwan” on mid to high-end road and MTB frames, with “Made in China” common on kids and price-point builds.
Read The Serial And QC Labels
Serial formats and QC tags vary by factory. Retailers can read those numbers against their intake logs to confirm the supplying plant and batch if you need warranty help.
Ask Your Dealer
Avanti routes sales and service through My Ride stores and independent dealers in AU and NZ, so the shop that sold the bike can usually confirm where that model was assembled and which batches are covered by a service bulletin.
Why Ownership Matters When You’re Buying
Ownership tells you who stands behind the product and the parts pipeline. With Sheppard’s local footprint and Scott Sports’ group scale, Avanti benefits from bigger purchasing power on frames and drivetrains, and stronger access to service stock. That tends to improve long-term support for touch points, hangers, small hardware, and e-bike spares. It also helps keep spec consistent during supply crunches.
Shopping Tips If You Want An Avanti
Test Fit Beats Spec Sheets
Sizing and fit matter more than headline grams. Avanti’s RightFit approach helps pick reach and stack that suit your riding. A five-minute parking-lot test on two sizes is worth more than a chart alone.
Match Build To Terrain
Pick tyres and gearing for your roads and paths, not a catalog dream. On gravel and MTB, low-range cassettes and tubeless-ready rims pay off more than a slightly lighter crank. On commuters, wide-range cassettes and fenders make daily rides easier.
For E-Bikes, Think About Service Access
Ask the shop who services the motor and how software updates are handled. A nearby My Ride store or an experienced dealer will cut downtime if anything needs attention.
Quality And Testing: What Happens Before A Frame Ships
Before a new frame hits the shop floor, samples go through lab fatigue tests, impact tests, and ride evaluations. Brands set minimums for bottom-bracket stiffness, head-tube torsion, seat-stay compliance, and fork strength. Test mules cycle through thousands of load repetitions, then get torn down to check for resin voids or bond failures. Only after that do size runs go to paint. The production run includes random batch pulls for re-testing, so if a lot slips off target, the factory and the brand correct the issue before bikes reach customers.
How To Buy From The Right Place
Stick to authorised retailers. In Australia and New Zealand, that usually means a My Ride store or a long-standing independent dealer with access to Sheppard’s parts and warranty portal. Grey-market imports can look cheaper up front, but they often lack recall coverage or software support for e-bike systems. When in doubt, call the store listed on Avanti’s dealer locator and confirm the frame’s serial matches their supplier records.
Where Avanti Sits Among Global Builders
Plenty of respected brands design at home and build with Asian partners. Taiwan’s bicycle industry formed deep supplier clusters around Taichung, with hundreds of companies covering frames, forks, brakes, and wheels. That ecosystem explains the consistency many riders notice across brands. Avanti operates in the same ecosystem, which is a good thing when you want reliable tolerances and smooth warranty logistics.
Bottom Line
who makes avanti bikes? It’s a New Zealand-born brand owned through Sheppard Cycles under the Scott Sports Group, with design led in NZ and Australia and manufacturing carried out by proven Asian partner factories. That split lets Avanti deliver locally tuned bikes backed by large-group resources, without owning a frame plant. If you came here asking “who makes avanti bikes?” for a purchase decision, you now know the chain of responsibility: Sheppard specifies, Asian OEMs build, local dealers support and service.