In the 1880s, Hotchkiss, Mayo & Meek Ltd was established in
Coventry as a manufacturer of bicycles. In 1897, the company name was changed to
Coventry-Eagle when John Meek left the company. From 1898, like many bicycle manufacturers they began experimenting by adding small petrol-engines to their heavier bicycle frames. By 1899 they produced their first motorcycle, manufactured along bicycle lines from carefully manufactured components. By the start of
World War I, the range included
Villiers and
JAP engines. Sourcing engines from four manufacturers post the war into the 1920s, during the depression of the 1930s the company concentrated on producing two-strokes. Production of motorcycles continued until the start of the
World War II in 1939.
Post-WW2 After the war, and not of a scale to continue competitive motorcycle manufacture, the company concentrated on
racing bicycles. In the 1930s, they had launched a range of sporting bikes under the "Falcon" brand, and it was under this marque that the company relaunched itself. Managed from the 1950s under British bicycle racer
Ernie Clements, in the 1970s the company signed a global licensing agreement with
Belgian-racer
Eddy Merckx brand, who at the time was the leading global
road cycling racer. This allowed the company to greatly expand, and export large numbers of Merckx bikes to the
United States.
Elswick Hopper In 1974, rival bicycle manufacturer
Elswick Hopper plc began a period of expansion, purchasing
Wearwell Cycles, which had been established before 1872. In 1978 the company acquired Falcon Cycles, which was operated as a subsidiary before being later merged into Elswick Hopper's factory at
Barton-upon-Humber,
North Lincolnshire. By the mid-1980s, Elswick Hopper plc was a diversified
conglomerate, spanning manufacturing, engineering, and distribution. But the company was losing money at both group and subsidiary level, and was in desperate need of reorganisation. Under a new
Chief Executive, the group company renamed itself Elswick plc in 1984, and renamed its bicycle division
Falcon Cycles, the name of its most popular selling sports bicycle brand. Ending production of bicycles under the Elswick brand in the same year, all bicycle manufacture was moved to a new factory at
Brigg. In 1987 the company later added the
Holdsworth and
Claud Butler brands to its top-of-the-range portfolio. However, by the late 1980s cheap imports from
Asia were flooding the UK market, and with a severe decline in the bicycle components industry, the company was reliant on importing those as well, and only assembling at Brigg. By this point, production had dwindled to just under 120,000 bicycles per annum. In an effort to stimulate sales and hence stem losses, Falcon were involved in cycle racing in the late 1980s and early 1990s, sponsoring and supplying the PMS Falcon and later the Banana Falcon teams. Having rebuilt Elswick plc as
printing and
packaging business focussed on
self adhesive and
garment labels, the group sold the bicycle division to Casket Ltd., a company who controlled the import-only Townsend brand. Casket Ltd with their greater buying power enabled an expansion of the Falcon brand, but ran into difficulty themselves after buying a
German-based bicycle manufacturer. ==Present==