Premier Cycle Works: Germany & Czechoslovakia

Premier Cycle Co of Coventry set up companies in Nuremberg, Germany and Cheb in Bohemia (Czechoslovakia).

The German operation apparently went into receivership in 1913, but the Czechoslovakian factory continued to produce Premier bicycles. Cheb is close to the German border, and not far from Chemnitz, the centre of the early German cycle industry.

You’ll notice that the Czech Premier catalogues further down the page show the formation of the company as 1875.

In 1911, two Premier employees, Swetlik and Kastrup, started a new Czechoslovakian cycle manufacturing company which became ES-KA.

After WW2, all Czech cycle companies with German investors were nationalized, and Premier and ES-KA may have merged.

 

PREMIER CYCLE CO LTD

Nuremberg, Germany & Cheb (Eger), Bohemia (Czechoslovakia)

 

 

1910s PREMIER HERRENRAD

 

 

 

This Premier’s badge and chainwheel are very different from the Coventry manufacturer.I’m not sure if it comes from the Czech Cheb factory rather or the German one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1937 PREMIER CATALOGUE

 

 

 

 

1938 PREMIER CATALOGUE