OUTRIDE THE DAY OWN THE NIGHT
Taking tech from the automobile industry, AKTiv will automatically dim your Strada’s beam when it detects an oncoming car’s headlights, to avoid dazzling them so they can still safely see where the cyclist is on the road. Allowing you to keep focused.
Rear lighting that flares up automatically under braking. It can also intelligently adapt to the surrounding ambient light conditions to maintain maximum contrast and visibility, for example brightening for street lit areas and moving into sunlight from shade.
This mode enables rear lights to automatically dim down when the front light of the rider behind is detected, preventing dazzling in the chain gang, it then flares up at the back of the pack for maximum safety.
Bespoke pulse pattern designed for daylight use which is more conspicuous than a regular pulse and visible from over a kilometre away, even in the brightest conditions. DayBright mode will get you noticed. Be Seen Be Safe.
EDITOR FROM THE
MONEY MATTERS AND PEOPLE DO TOO –IF YOU WANT A RETURN ON INVESTMENT
MUCH has been made of the investment merry-go-round in the cycling industry. For at least the last two decades, cash from outside the trade has been put into (what they hoped would be) up-and-coming brands. The lockdown boom and the days of Team Sky and London 2012 spring to mind as two particular periods that really seemed to spark the interest of investors.
The trade has been dubious about some of the big money being splashed by those outside the trade with, perhaps, unrealistic appreciation of trading in the cycling industry. Certainly we’ve seen some go sour pretty quickly. You can’t quite say that WiggleCRC’s purchase in 2021 by Signa Sports United was by a cycle industry novice, but this big money deal of course had dire consequences for WiggleCRC which just two years later was looking for a new owner (Frasers Group snapped it up earlier this year).
A twist in the investment cycle has seen a couple of big name brands being bought back by their founders, with a few instances of this in recent times. A few months previous, Kona was purchased by its founding duo. After admitting it has had “a bumpy couple of years”, Dan Gerhard and Jake Heilbron have bought the firm back and are promising more retailer focus as well as a D2C “pause”.
Troy Lee founder, er Troy Lee, recently bought back the brand he founded 43 years ago, with backing from a “world-class American family” – indicating that the really important thing is the people in the business (and at the helm), even if cash is coming from those that don’t necessarily “understand” the industry.
Two years ago, Nikwax founder Nick Brown passed control and ownership of that brand to a newly formed employee trust. At the time, Brown said: “By passing on the business to the employees, I feel that I am not only looking after them, but also looking after the interests of our loyal customers. Outdoor people have come to have high expectations of Nikwax, at many levels, and I would not want them to be disappointed. So many companies end up being aggressively taken over and broken up and lose their soul. This is our best shot at avoiding that and continuing the guiding principles.”
Sage words from Mr Brown there. Money matters, but, it seems, people matter more – especially if you want a return on your investment.
Jonathon Harker
jon@cyclingindustr y.news
WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITIES & BROADER TRENDS
This latest excerpt from CIN’s annual Market Data shines light on the spending priorities of bike shops as well as how the workshop is performing. Time to compare and contrast these industry findings with those of your own business...
HOW DO YOU PLAN TO INVEST IN 2024?
ANALYSIS
There’s a lot of data to sift through here – the same stats presented handily in graph (above) and table (right) form – so let’s head straight for the headlines.
The losers
61% of bike shops are investing less in stock levels. Probably not the biggest surprise within these pages, nor is the second biggest loser in this report – investment in new bike ranges (35% bike shops spending less). There are a few natural additions to that – storage of goods and premises expansion are also seeing similarly large numbers of bike shops spending less on them. Belts have been tightening elsewhere too, Epos (24%) café or food services (23%) and bike fitting (24%) all identified as areas bike shops are cutting back on. The picture on those three mentioned is slightly less conclusive, however, with a split in opinion on whether to spend more or less in these areas (see table above)
The winners
Without looking at the stats, could you so easily guess the areas shops are investing more in? We’ll put up our hands and confess we found this considerably harder to predict than where cut backs would fall. The big winner here is the online shop window. Guessable? Perhaps. Here we appear to be seeing the cycling industry continue to adapt to broader retail trends, but with the caveat – the carefully worded question concerns ‘online shop window’ rather than necessarily online ecommerce. That aside, the online retail trend is clear. Numbers from Statista.com show the value that Brits spend online continues to rise, irrespective of Covid (though lockdowns are generally believed to have helped cement the rise further). In January 2016, Brits were spending £854 million online. By November, this was £3.1 billion. Against that backdrop, it’s very little surprise to see bike shops prioritising investment in their online shop window. Compounding that finding, a similar proportion of bike shops
are dedicating spend to marketing and SEO. With hindsight, it would have been interesting to hear where that marketing spend is going – the assumption being our Californian friends Facebook and Google hoovering up UK bike industry cash –maybe one for the next edition of CIN’s Market Data.
Away from the virtual world, where have bike shops been intending to spend cash? Workshop fitting and tooling is a winner here, with nearly half (44%) spending on this area. Distributors and brands will no doubt be interested in that one. Is there ever a bad time to be importing a tool or workshop related brand? If so, it’s not in 2024. As an aside, Madison recently took on distribution duties for GTechniq – a brand that can nicely slot into the genre of workshop services for minded shops and workshops, and the market seems ripe for any other company or brand that can carve out a workshop or servicerelated niche.
Shops are also spending out on event creation. Sadly there was chance to drill down into more detail there too, but for now we are left to speculate on the exact nature of those events being spent out on – but let’s assume demo days and ride outs as well as in-store gatherings.
The nitty gritty Clearing debt is a priority for a vast number of bike shops, with 54% spending the same and 28% spending more on reducing them. Sadly and worryingly, shop security is an area identified as requiring more investment (40% of shops will be doing so),
with 55% holding firm on the cash they are ploughing into this area. Retail crime has widely been reported to be on the up in the UK, and a glance around many supermarkets sees more innovate security tagging on items – as well as some locks on cabinets for the kind of items that didn’t need them a few years ago. Again, it’s a broader trend that is impacting on the industry but that doesn’t mean it can be neglected.
HAS YOUR ANNUAL WORKSHOP REVENUE INCREASED OR DECREASED?
ANALYSIS
Sometimes data hits squarely where you expect it to, confirming your assumptions and here we can – largely – say that this is the case with the numbers gleaned from the workshop revenue question. Yes, there has been more workshop business occurring in recent times. You know why, but we’ll go through the main theories: Cash strapped consumers are more likely to service their existing bikes than splash out on new bikes; Compounding that, consumers are more likely to already have a newish bike thanks to lockdown, and are again probably more likely to be servicing existing bikes than buying yet another new one; And then there’s inflation – more workshop revenue in the last 12 months? That’s also probably to be expected. But, it’s not a universal story, so let’s look closer at the numbers.
The majority of the nation’s cycle retailers saw workshop revenue growth in the last 12 months, with a whopping 42% reporting a 10-50% increase. A third (33%) had flat year-on-year workshop revenues, and that’s a very clear message that workshops have been a vital revenue driver for independent bike shops, with three quarters of retailers seeing workshop revenues either flat or increasing. On the other hand, a smaller but perhaps still significant 17% saw revenue down 10-50%, which is enough to illustrate that even the workshop can’t make up for the dire economic situation the industry has been facing – and which we hope is almost over with.
We’ve spent quite a bit of time banging on about diversification
of customer and income stream within these pages. Arguably, the workshop is the most obvious example of diversification for a shop selling bikes and P&A. But yes, the statistics back our preconceptions here: Workshops are clearly key to the bike retail mix (although not universally going great guns for everyone). It will be very interesting to see how workshop revenues change as 2024 progresses and – presumably – customers start to buy a few more bikes instead of servicing their old ones.
INNOVATION SURGE
There’s been plenty of rough news and headlines in recent years, but aside from the green shoots we’re all seeking, the latest edition of Eurobike offered a positive insights into the industry’s relentless drive for innovation…
As has been pointed out by CIN correspondents and elsewhere, Eurobike this year picked up many of the general themes currently circulating in the international cycle trade; sustainability, the continued rise of eBikes, the same for cargo bikes and the small matter of supply chain management. There was less focus on local or national issues – we didn’t hear a lot of chatter about C2W, for instance. The theme of innovation was present too. That’s probably something that’s been a given ever since the dawn of trade shows, but something seemed different this year.
Eurobike has always felt like a good place to show off your latest innovation, but 2024’s edition of the show in Frankfurt felt positively laden with it. You couldn’t swing a proverbial cat without knocked over a new take on a drive system, seatpost or lock.
But why? At the show, CIN canvassed and theorised with exhibitors on the point and the general feeling we gleaned largely came back to Covid and its after effects.
Launching a market-disrupting innovation during a time when the industry is massively overstocked, margins are tight and consumers are cash-strapped doesn’t make commercial sense, you could reasonably argue. So, there is a general train of thought that brands have been keeping a lid on their innovations when they normally would have
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shared them. With a number of businesses thinking likewise, now – with the light at the end of the tunnel considerably brighter than it was a year ago –we’re now seeing a decent number finally remove the covers and present the efforts of their R&D department’s latest efforts at once. So, we’re seeing a flurry of innovation rather than a trickle.
Backing that point from beyond the cycle industry, rumours are rife (at time of writing) that AI chip-making Nvidia is set to delay its latest launch amid a downturn that is seeing its rival Intel make layoffs. If it’s good enough for the tech industry…
UBER REFINED PRODUCT
That point is supplemented by the opportunity that – thanks to holding back innovations, R&D teams have had extra time to further refine their new ideas. Having additional months to further develop innovations – beyond what they would normally have had –means that not only are we seeing a lot of innovations right now, but they are also well developed innovations –perhaps to the point where our first glimpse of a new range is actually a mark 3 version, rather than a mark 1 iteration.
The next point gleaned from the great and the good of the Eurobike show halls is an evergreen one, but perhaps more pertinent now than in recent times: Innovate or die. The time to come to a show with a new paint job is, sorry to be harsh, probably over. Competition is always fierce and recent years have served to cruelly remind us that household names in the trade can soon become history. If brands give up ground in the innovation race then that’s a risky way to play the game at the moment. And a trip to Eurobike serves to remind just how many businesses make up the European cycle industry – and when you factor in the thousands of cycle companies that were not present, then the scale of the industry remains nothing less than incredible.
Not everyone will be bowled over with excitement at a flurry of new innovations, with many questioning the need for yet more standards and fittings (and the spares and tools required in the workshop to deal with them). But innovation is what the industry has traditionally thrived on and judging by the state of affairs in Frankfurt this summer, the trade is in rude health, on that level at least.
Vaude hits the innovation and sustainability targets with Aqua Back bike bags
SKS showed a new pump compatible with neighbour Schwalbe’s CLIK valve
ABUS saw its innovation endeavours earn it multiple awards
THE FINISHING KIT
After inventing the first suspension seatpost more than 30 years ago ULTIMATE has launched its first suspension stem, the Vybe stem to ensure that the definitive suspension setup is now complete. With the choice of 4 elastomer strengths and both top and bottom pre-load allows adjustment like never before, perfectly complimenting the riders’ style and terrain. Engineered and made in Great Britain.
For total comfort and control the Vybe stem and post can be paired with the carbon Escape gravel bars featuring AVT (Anti Vibration Technology) to smooth any and all surfaces.
TREND SPOTTING
Each year we at CIN reflect on our time in Germany and try to look beyond the front row of each booth. What was the talk of the town and what did we learn about the pivot of our business in this tech-led age?
Businesses from outside the industry continue to have a significant impact
INVESTOR APPETITE AND A WHO’S WHO OF TECH
It couldn’t be much clearer, in the early days of Covid investors rode the euphoria, but where are they now? Have they all fled to the latest AI or defence investments, or are they still waiting in the wings of the bike industry’s junction of megatrends – health, environment, technology, transport and logistics revolutions?
What was clear from Eurobike’s new exhibitor mix and those capturing the column inches with most international press was that newcomers and established forces from outside of the industry continue to have an impact. Take DJI, better known for its drone technology; here was a new motor launch, flanked by a handful of accompanying bike launches, commanding two of the largest booths indoors and outdoors. Then there were the likes of Valeo and ZF, also challenging the eBike motor giants with what appear to be compelling products for a variety
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of applications. While in the past we may have got used to a two-horse race in Shimano and SRAM, when it comes to motor suppliers, competition feels rife.
HOW TO HANDLE THE UK?
“COUNTLESS BRANDS REMAIN ENTHUSED BY THE IDEA OF SELLING MORE INTO THE UK, BUT ARE TAKING SOME TIME TO FIGURE OUT THE BEST APPROACH.”
The recurring theme of the past years, when you arrive to investigate an eyecatching brand’s UK presence, remains a cocktail of curiosity, questions and hesitancy. It remains the case that countless brands remained enthused by the idea of selling more into the UK, but are taking some time to figure out the best approach. For example, Tenways, Lemmo, Velo de Ville – each of these is to a varying degree working out its logistics and finding boots on the ground to execute a full market entry. In most cases, there is little interest in the traditional distributor model, but nonetheless a network of dealers is sought to make the required impact. With that comes some logistical challenges that have only come into play since the referendum. You can’t help but feel that there are no winners here, as it stands.
EBIKES, EQUIPMENT AND ADD-ON SALES
It's hard to escape that the vast majority of modern electric bikes are now supplied armed to the teeth with almost everything you could need in terms of accessories that previously would have been add-on sales. Lighting as standard, guards, kickstands, pannier racks – so often it’s all there, at most price points. So where will the add-on sales of the future come from? We’d wager that in the shift in industry tone, from focusing on sporting bikes to today being more interested in utility and transport that actually there’s as much, if not more value to be had in making a bike special for your customer, though this is far more true in the commuter, cargo and gravel spaces than anywhere else. Never before have we seen such variety in the add-on accessories as this year’s Eurobike. There were frame packs for every nook and accessories previously unseen. In store merchandising may now require a small mannequin or two, but selling your
New categories and design norms appear to be emerging, arguably with some design leaps taking place
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On point – technology is at a level where there’s opportunity to become more relevant to those who’d never choose to go by bike
“THE BIKE INDUSTRY HAS TO RE-INVENT ITSELF NOW AND THEN TO REPLENISH THE POTENTIAL CUSTOMER POOL AND INSPIRE A LITTLE CREATIVITY IN WHAT PEOPLE DO WITH BIKES.”
customers a journey or a pursuit may never have been easier than it is now.
NEW CATEGORIES
AND DESIGN NORMS EMERGING?
The bike industry has to re-invent itself now and then to replenish the potential customer pool and inspire a little creativity in what people do with bikes. That was a lot harder to do before the eBike motor, but now with many motors perfectly happy of kicking out high torque horizons are quite naturally expanding. Tern’s Orox debut, seen in our last print issue, is arguably the most obvious departure into new ground of late, but they’re not alone. The aforementioned Lemmo is another set to bring to market in 2025 a full suspension longtail that’s robust enough to haul a campsite. Therein lies a few ideas for the industry to ponder. First, are we witnessing the next great leap in cycle design? And
secondly, with that, have we the opportunity to build bikes to a customer profile and thus make ourselves relevant to people who would otherwise never choose to go by bike?
If Eurobike’s innovations were anything to go by, the design shackles are being cast further off. Just imagine how easily from this point we arrive at a junction where derailleurs are a thing of the past and the internal gearbox and motor with automatic shifting becomes the norm. Until it happened nobody believed we’d ever see the front derailleur become a niche item. With design constraints removed and new supply chains establishing around new norms, it may be that the bike shop has a whole new set of mechanical and electrical skill sets to learn arriving on the horizon.
There’s more from the show at: www.cyclingindustry.news/?s=eurobike
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“EVERYONE’S INVITED”
“The cycling industry to me, means: everybody’s invited. Therefore we must be everybody.” Will Butler-Adams, CEO at Brompton Bicycles, speaks with Danielle Reiff-Jongerius in the fifth article for CIN exploring diversity in the cycling industry…
In an eight-month journey exploring women’s roles in the cycling industry, one lesson stands out: without men’s support, progress is limited. More broadly speaking: We need the majority to proactively back minorities, and this requires a shift in thinking within that said majority. This article spotlights men driving change and transformation.
I asked women in the industry to recommend men who have made a difference. The responses were fewer than expected, but a few names stood out.
One such name is Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bikes. In our candid conversation, which quickly shifted from prepared Q&A to a very open, funny and informal dialogue, Will (yes, we immediately went first name-familiar without knowing each other) shared his vision on inclusion and diversity in the world, and, oh right, the cycling industry, too.
Will Butler-Adams: Danielle, thank you for asking me to be a part of this. Of
course, today, we’ll be talking about women, but it’s not about women. It’s just about humanity. And I think the general problem that we have, which I like to talk about…wait – Danielle, are you a walkist?’
Danielle Reiff-Jongerius: Well, Will, I am not familiar with that term, but I have an idea of where you are going with this – and I would say, no, I am not. Will Butler-Adams (WBA): Neither am I. I am also not a “cyclist”, are you?
DR: No, I am not a “cyclist” – but I do cycle almost every day.
WBA: Cycling is like walking. It’s like breathing. It should just be part of life. At Brompton, we don’t create products for “cyclists”. It’s not to sell bikes. It’s to create urban freedom. To make people a little bit happier. That’s what most amazing products do. You don’t buy the product for the product.
You buy it because of how it changes your life.
The way we’re living our lives today is not right. Most of us live in cities and the irony is, as this most intelligent animal on planet Earth, we’ve devised a world where most of us live is the most unhealthy place to live. And that is bonkers and stupid. And that’s because at some point in the 1950s, we took the wrong turn and we decided to design our cities around a square metal box called an automobile, rather than a jelly-like human being. And the human beings came second and the automobile came first. We need to turn that on its head.
DR: Bring everyone along to the party… Do we start with parents?
WBA: “So if we start from that place, then you need to change the city. You don’t need to change the middle aged white man with a six pack, because that ain’t going to do enough.
You’ve got to bring everyone along to the party.
Fortunately, parents have this deep desire to teach their children how to ride a bike. And as a parent, if you don’t do that, it’s a bit like teaching your child to swim: you feel irresponsible if you don’t. And thank God they have done that because the opportunity is not lost. Because if that had happened, if parents had felt they didn’t need to teach their children how to ride a bike, then we’d be in real trouble. But we’re not. And now, I’m in business. I want to change the world.
DR: So, then how do you have impact and drive change from the company’s perspective?
WBA: Something we introduced about 15 years ago was bringing our retailers to the factory. So, we bring shops from Japan, Singapore, the US, Spain, France, and we’ve come for a couple of days and have fun and go riding, drink warm beer, eat soggy chips. Take a picture outside of Buckingham Palace and have fun…
DR: Lots of companies do this…
WBA: Yes, but I just had this epiphany, which came when the 200 people that we brought into the factory – there were no women. What the f***? Now it’s worth saying, I have three sisters and three daughters. My wife is one of three
girls too, so I’m surrounded by girls. This got me thinking:
Imagine if you wrote a business plan and you said, right, there is a market of 100%. This is a total market opportunity that we could sell to a wonderful big fat market. What we’re going to do, is we’re going to target 2% of it.
And we’re not even going to bother with the other 98%. Oh, no it’s just the 2% we are after.
Anyone reading that business plan would go: f**** Are you an idiot? What are you doing? Why are you wasting your time on the two? What about all this other potential? No, we’re not interested in that.
Our Japanese dealer opened the first store 17 years ago, I think, in Kōbe in Japan. And he said he’s only going to sell Brompton. We were tiny at the time. We’re like, it’s never going to work.
He was determined. Shop’s still there. It worked.
So, then we thought, well, this is kind of embarrassing, we better open our first shop. It was really important to us that we weren’t competing with other bike shops. This had to be something that supported them, that, you know, gave them confidence in who we are that raises the profile of the brand.
DR: Radical entrepreneurship: a 50-50 rule is implemented. WBA: We knew we had to do something
different from existing bike retail: You’re going to the average bike store. It’s cluttered. Well, first you’ve got to find it. It’s out of the way. You come in, it’s just totally blokey. It’s not even sort of smart. Unless you’re a total and utter cyclist, like a geek into it, part of that 2% I mentioned earlier, you’re out by now. But that’s not how we’re going to change the world. That is not what the sector as a whole should be doing. So when we opened our store, we made it clean, added loos. A restaurant is defined by how clean the loos are. I mean, this is basic stuff: no clutter, beautiful and colourful and un-intimidating, just a nice place to just wander around and feel invited.
And now we decided to do some seriously radical innovation. We decided to make half of our staff women. Oh yes. Radical. It’s crazy rocket science. And of course we discovered some unbelievable insights: that women like to be served by women. And then we also discovered that men like to be served by women. And we found that our female staff were some of our most successful sales reps. We then shared this insight with our retailers and we have opened more stores worldwide.
Well, we still love getting to know how to do bike retail right. And it’s different everywhere in the world.
DR: Talking about differences everywhere in the world: what is the most pressing issue for you personally, on a global scale?
WBA: Well, the fundamental principles are similar but the funny thing is, I mean, we haven’t really shifted the dial. I didn’t go to Eurobike like a year before lockdown. Remember, lockdown was this epiphany, this moment where suddenly we could see mothers, children, you know, with this just latent hunger to cycle, to have that freedom to be where people felt safe. Suddenly they just all came out and were taking back space in the city and taking back the streets. So it was this moment of realisation in my mind of what I expected. Like the industry is going to go, oh my God. And let’s at the same time, remember, we’ve got a climate crisis that becomes so real that it’s there for all of us to see. So the opportunity for us is changing how we live.
So I went to Eurobike post lockdown last year full of excitement to think about the positioning, the engagement, the people, expecting that the images
Brompton decided to be ‘radical’ and make half its store staff women
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would be about lifestyle, about how we engage with everybody. But it wasn’t – it was like a complete fricking rejig of what I saw in 2019.
It was all blokey, blokey, techie, techie – selling more shit to somebody who’s already got seven bikes. They don’t need more. We’ve got a climate crisis. You don’t need to add another bike for that, you know, fetishist.
We need to engage with people who don’t even own a bike, but that know how to ride a bike because their parents were running behind them, as I do with my girls teaching them to ride a bike.
DR: Why is the cycling industry so afraid?
WBA: I think the problem is that our sector is full of enthusiasts. It is full of cyclists.
So, I’m not a cyclist. I wouldn’t know the first thing about the Tour De France. I cycle a lot, I couldn’t live without my bike and I’m everywhere with it. And I get withdrawal symptoms if I’m not on it.
We have made a conscious effort in our business to not overpopulate with cyclists, because then they will design and communicate and engage again only that 2%. And that is not the opportunity. We are being successful by engaging this wider audience.
It’s the imagery. You need to see yourself. And this makes this not just about women. It’s about everybody. It’s about class. It’s about wealth. It’s about age. It’s about religion, ethnicity. If you never see somebody who looks or feels or
thinks like you, in any of the communication, you feel like you’re not invited.
We just did a collaboration with a brand called Palace, originally a skateboard brand, but that’s become a lifestyle, urban brand. We need to position our bike so that the younger, very urban, edgy community feel invited and see that this product is not just for the sort of City guy who’s in his 50s trotting off to work. But you have to work at that. And we know it works because we have loads of customers who are in their 20s and they’ll be riding that bike for 30 years to come. Love it and cherish it. But you can’t just assume that’ll happen. You’ve got to go out there and work at it and find ways to engage and position your product in such a way that the person goes, hey, yeah, maybe that is me. Your message needs to resonate with the community that you’re trying to excite.
The last thing we want to do is sell our bike to someone who doesn’t need one, because then it’s a waste and they will never love it because they never needed it. But there are many, many people who would really benefit from one of our bikes, they just don’t know they need it yet.
DR: From Brompton’s perspective, a global company, what have you achieved when it comes to diversity and equality?
WBA: If you truly want to be global, you need and you want to, talk to a diverse audience. You need to reflect your customer. The cycling industry should
be: everybody’s invited. Therefore we must be everybody.
We are in London and that has been luck; but we also took a decision strategically not to move out of London. We moved the factory eight years ago. And if you looked at the numbers, everyone would say, well, you need to move away. London’s too expensive, but London makes us who we are because if we moved to Birmingham, we would not be anything like as diverse as we are here. London is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world, and that is reflected in who we recruit. And it has given us a tremendous competitive advantage by having that rich diversity inside our business.
DR: Any advice for the industry you’d like to share?
WBA: If you want to make more profit, then you ought to start talking to this massive opportunity that you’re not talking to. Put it in their language. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to demonstrate through our shops to other retailers. The shop in London is turning over about 1.5 million pounds only selling Bromptons. So take some learning. We’ll give you all the information you need. We can give you all the data.
We can tell you everything, take some of what we’ve succeeded with, and put a bit of that into your store and learn from what we’ve learned. And if we try something, we fail, we’ll similarly tell you – don’t do this. We can experiment in our stores. We can take risks, and then we can de-risk the retailer.
It’s so entrenched, this cyclist’s sort of mindset and we need to open up.
We had the recent mayoral elections for London, and the conservative candidate wants to get rid of cycle lanes, get rid of low traffic neighbourhoods, get rid of, you know, emission charges lost, because people want safer streets, cleaner and more active living and, and culture for their children.
DR: So the quiet majority is being heard, even though a loud minority are making lots of noise.
WBA: I think our sector will change. you’ve said that the bigger companies are bringing their token women in. Well, at least they’re bringing token women in, because those token women get more and more and they will have a louder and louder voice, and they will have a bigger and bigger impact, and then it will create its own momentum.
Will Butler-Adams explains Brompton’s stores are set up to demonstrate to other retailers how to speak to the huge opportunity the industry is – largely – not yet talking to
DR: Final thoughts?
WBA: Actually, it’s great Cycling Industry News commissioned you to do this as a series, because I do think some of the bodies representing cycling are part of the p roblem. And that they need more leadership. I’m afraid we don’t have time to be afraid. We’re going to be dead in a minute. So stand up for something, be more true leaders and create some debate. Debate comes with friction and comes with, you know, not being aligned and taking a safe route.
Take an example of what Anne Hidalgo did in Paris, she stood up and led and challenged the status quo. And every-
body said she was going to fail. ‘’She’s so unpopular.’’ But guess what? She’s voted in for a second term. Now there are more people cycling in Paris than there are driving. It will never go back now. The majority is becoming louder by the minute and we will get there.’’
DR: Editing this pleasant conversation without trying to cut the openness out, I came to see Will Butler-Adams as a warm, caring, and sensible businessman who understands his responsibilities as a CEO. He knows that his business thrives on inclusion, and living and breathing that is common sense. As he put it, it’s about humanity, not bikes.
“THERE’S NO TIME TO BE AFRAID, WE’RE GOING TO BE DEAD IN A MINUTE. SO STAND UP FOR SOMETHING, BE MORE TRUE LEADERS AND CREATE SOME DEBATE.”
DANIELLE REIFF-JONGERIUS
Growing up in Utrecht, one of the cycling capitals of the world, Danielle Reiff-Jongerius has used her bike to get to school since the age of five. In 2015 she founded her agency, 138, in Munich while pregnant with her second child and with the vision to build her business around her family. Together with her husband, Philipp, it was decided they would merge both their businesses and share workload, income and parenting tasks equally. Today, 138’s values are reflected in a steadily growing company that puts their team first, while offering their expertise in content creation, marketing, communication and change management support to a diverse array of clients. Find out more at 138alternatives.com
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HOW TO CATCH A JOURNALIST
CIN hands over the reins to an anonymous bike journalist to provide these shortcuts to upping your odds of getting column inches...
How to put this delicately, without alienating a chunk of the people that may theoretically pay my wage… There are things we as journalists very much appreciate when it comes to working with marketing and PR teams and there are things that we do not. I’m not seeking a tiny violin. I think I chose this career, but publishing is relentless. It genuinely is not all press camps and freebies as you might think. It is, among most of my industry colleagues I speak to, long hours, bad eyes and a hamster wheel of deadlines that only seems to speed up.
That leads me to this plea, a piece I’ve wanted to write for some time, but that I could not place; that is until the Editor of CIN kindly agreed. It’s all on me too, don’t shoot the messenger. Don’t shoot me either, I’m trying to help.
So, without further whinging, here are some pointers that can help us work harmoniously, generating less emails per chain and ensuring that you get your brand coverage and that we can go to press on time.
1: TAILOR YOUR PRESS RELEASE FOR THE AUDIENCE
This one sounds obvious, but very often I’ll see press releases that at
poorly pitched and widely spammed. It’s not so bad seeing consumer-facing press releases sent to trade Editors and vice-versa, we’re on the same database, I get it, but please do scan our site or magazine. Better still, speak to the Editors about the type of content that is likely to be covered. Get a nose for the type of angle that a title is known for and adapt.
Each title will have a specialty, whether its racing, product, or industry news. It would look out of place and be uninteresting to a given audience to cross-pollinate, so please pick your chase-up battles accordingly and understand that each morning we’ll be looking for the big story and that other press releases will be got to by the afternoon, if possible. It’s nothing personal if you didn’t make the news on the day a big story broke, or a magazine deadline in-house took our attention.
2:
INCLUDE BUYING INFORMATION AND CONTACT DETAILS FOR EVERYONE
It’s almost unanimously the objective of a press release to sell the product, whatever it may be, yet so often by the end of the press release journalists can be no closer to advising their reader how to purchase a product, when it is
available, and via what channels. Don’t keep us guessing, include dates, contact information, websites, partners, sales agent’s contact details; anything and everything that closes the loop.
3: SEND HIGH-RESOLUTION IMAGERY, BUT NOT 7GB WORTH
First thing’s first – please don’t send images with a file size in the kilobytes. Nine times in 10 we’ll have to come back to you and ask for the original file, or at least something that’s been edited but not compressed. For print, we ideally need 300 dots per inch (think pixels) at whatever size an image is to be printed.
On the reverse side of the coin, it’s maddening and I mean computer crashingly excruciating to have to download a 7GB WeTransfer just to access one file. Please just send a sensible, concise and relevant mix. No more than ten pictures, unless the feature is a four-plus pager.
And photographers, please stop with the soft-focus art shots where we can tell what kind of tree is in the foreground, but nothing about the bike. We won’t use them. Frame your shot evenly, get the bike or component in focus and shoot. Delete the surplus.
4:
EMBARGOS! GIVE TIME AND MAKE SURE ALL FOLLOW
Having seen some outrageous workarounds I gave up believing embargos can work in this day and age a while ago, but in the spirit of community cohesion continue to play ball. It is incredibly frustrating when others don’t, however, and it happens a lot. Sometimes it’s even the result of brands having separate embargo times for separate countries, which obviously doesn’t work. In any case, accidents can happen in particular if time zones or conditions are not specified. If the breach is not accidental, please do something about it.
Anyway, I’m here to guide, not to complain, so if your product launch requires an embargo make sure you give a window of a week to three working days minimum so that the playing field is fair and equal. Editorial teams are often small, so this gives us time to get the story lined up.
5:
MINIMISE THE JARGON AND MARKETING LINGO
Seriously, it’s alienating your customers and making our industry seem inaccessible. If in doubt, ask your mum to read your catalogue and see if she understands what the differences are between your products. If you want to sell them, people who don’t yet care need to be brought on the journey. Don’t make them decipher your code.
6: DO FOLLOW UP!
I’ll level with you. Almost every team in publishing is at least a little bit underresourced for the task. I’ll ask for no sympathy as I know that’s the case in shops, with distributors and manufacturers too, but please don’t take an ignored email as a no. As long as you’ve addressed point 4 in this article and your pitch has sufficient weight to justifiably make a typical day’s homepage then we will be receptive to having your news an option. We might just not have got to it yet and need a reminder, but of course give it 24 to 48 hours.
7: PRESS TRIPS: TIMES ARE CHANGING
There was a time when I loved a press trip and, truth be told, I sorely miss the quality time and results gained from forging those closer connections. It was a perk of a job that, it’s fair to say, is never going to make me rich. Most of us in the bike industry do it for passion, right? Yet there comes a time in life when responsibility weighs a bit heavier and though no employer has officially given me a carbon target, a very quick Google search gives you the reality of flying and its damage to the planet. If you’re interested, a round trip from London to Frankfurt will add up to a personal carbon footprint of 0.3 of a tonne of CO2 if you fly economy and multiply a bit if you’re taking up more space in business class (though we’re not on bike industry budgets).
“PLEASE DON'T TAKE AN IGNORED EMAIL AS A NO... WE MIGHT JUST HAVE NOT GOT TO IT YET AND NEED A REMINDER (BUT OF COURSE GIVE IT A FEW HOURS).”
A great image like this one helps ensure your press release gets some coverage, but some thought as to who you’re photographing on your latest bike is worthwhile for an industry that is hoping to bring in some fresh blood
“IT’S NOTHING PERSONAL IF YOU DIDN’T MAKE THE NEWS ON THE DAY A BIG STORY BROKE, OR A MAGAZINE DEADLINE IN-HOUSE TOOK OUR ATTENTION.”
If journalists made it a habit to fly to every press trip then it becomes hard to ignore the reality of what that’s doing to the planet. So, this is a plea to the industry, for the common good. Stop inviting us to one brand press camps. We can better justify multi-brand gatherings that really pack in a lot of value, but we’re at a point in time now where we all have decisions to make if we want a reasonable future for our children.
8: DON’T BASH YOUR COMPETITORS
I’ll admit I’ve done this in the past in jest and I’ve come to realise it was a mistake. It’s unprofessional and it’s awkward. The more time you spend focusing on efforts to lower others, the less time you are spending on keeping us interested in why you shine above.
9: WE ARE A BUSINESS TOO
Speaking more on behalf of the sales teams that pay our wages: In the present climate of slashed marketing budgets, it’s tricky to balance column inches without some accusation of picking favourites. For the most part, there exists a healthy harmony in media spend and balanced, impartial coverage. No, you don't need to spend with most publishers to get seen at least a little bit. Against instincts that should exist, I can vouch that 90% of journalists I’ve worked with are far more interested in stories that generate genuine interest and most actively dislike any commercial involvement in their work. Admirable, but also a bit risky. Quality content takes time and you do want to read quality content, we know this. Yet we also need to make a living. So, please don’t get irate at editorial staff if, in a word count capped article, greater weight
is sometimes given to a client. For my part, advertising does not mean your product is going to be reviewed any better, but it probably does mean it’ll be higher on my list of priorities to work through that week, if it’s newsworthy. Nonetheless, proper journalism cannot be bought, but if you work with us when budgets allow, you’re more likely to find yourself involved. Be realistic, give a little, get a little.
BONUS POINTERS
• Imagery really matters. Photograph the customer you’d like to see, but more importantly, everybody else too. This isn’t some exclusive club, let’s get the masses involved (and sell more bikes as a result).
• Sharpen your pitch. So often my headline is at the bottom of your press release. Pick me a piece of data or a fact I can’t ignore and lead with it.
• Build relationships with us, pick up the phone, chat. Most of the time ideas hatch this way.
• Don’t pretend you’re giving an exclusive when you’re not. Content isn’t scarce, it’s coming out our ears; this isn’t a trick worth playing.
• eBike brands – send the chargers in the box, preferably with a UK plug. Don’t have dummy software on the ebike. If shipping from the EU, talk to the publisher about the post-Brexit customs charge, or else the Editor will be fielding calls from collection companies.
• Cite your sources if you are quoting data. Press releases to be taken seriously must do this.
• Don’t wait until the deadline to send things over. 95% of the article will be written, you’ll be an afterthought, or worse, miss the boat.
• As I have here, if something is on your chest, get it off. People love honest insight on podcasts or in magazines. It’s a back door to exposure for your brand, that is professional and personal.
COMING SOON:
The other side of the coin – marketeers and PR gurus present their tips for bicycle journalists…
GOT ANY TIPS TO SHARE? Contact us at: jon@cyclingindustry.news
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LISTENING TO THE INDUSTRY
The CIN Podcast regularly interviews industry names and panels of trade execs, with recent highlights including:
How can bike rental boost your bike shop?
Mentorship and diversity in the cycle industry
England’s oldest bike manufacturer, Pashley, on its B2B DNA
Head to Soundcloud for more: https://soundcloud.com/user-740094534
“WE BELIEVE THAT SMART CAN LOWER THE BARRIERS THAT THE EBIKE MARKET IS EXPERIENCING RIGHT NOW.”
DIGITALISATION, BIKE SECURITY & EXPENSIVE EBIKES
Founded in 2016 Velco now works with 30+ brands in the trade, connecting north of 60,000 bikes on the market. CIN Podcast quizzed the firm on what digitalisation really means to brands, workshops and end user cyclists…
When the industry was talking about electrification and eBikes eight years ago, Velco was talking about digitalisation, the smart bike company recently told the Cycling Industry News Podcast.
While some in the tangible cycling industry may feel digitalisation is something of a woolly concept, it is becoming ever more embedded, not least in those electric bikes and in production. Don’t believe us? In the summer of last year, Velco officially became Shimano’s off the shelf IoT (Internet of Things) partner.
Regular CIN Podcast Host Sean Lalley recently interviewed Johnny Smith, CoFounder and CMO of Velco. Velco sells hardware and software for bikes, with the French and German company, providing connectivity solutions for eBike brands. What this means for the industry includes preventative maintenance, greater security, fleet management capabilities and greater data.
HELPING OVERCOME BARRIERS FOR CONSUMER
Smith tells Lally: “We’re basically selling hardware IoT devices that you can integrate on bikes at the assembly of the bike, and then giving access to a full Velco suite of applications from a white label mobile application for the cyclist, a mobile web application for the manufacturer of the bike, for the brand to understand who the users are and what they’re doing with their bikes, but also a fleet management platform for fleet managers.
“Thanks to our innovations, we know that the eBike market is growing and has such a big potential, but it also has a lot of challenges. And we believe that smart can lower the barriers that the eBike market is experiencing right now. For
Johnny Smith, Co-Founder and CMO of Velco
“FEATURES THAT IMPROVE SECURITY SAFETY OR BIKE LIFESPAN ARE, IN OUR BELIEF, NECESSARY.”
example, security, safety or increasing the bicycle lifespan. This is what we can do, thanks to connectivity.”
PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE
“When we ask ourselves the question: Can smart bikes actually make bikes more reliable? Yes, they can. One easy example is preventive maintenance.
“A bike shop may be selling a bike to someone that is not necessarily technical and may have limited experience of riding bikes. So, thanks to connectivity, we are able to understand their life, how much use the eBike gets… So we’re able to push some notification on their mobile application. We’re telling them when it is time to do maintenance and when they need to go to their repair shop. We are also able to let them know, hey, there’s some new features and some improved experience that you can have on some of your electronic parts that you have on your bike, and connectivity can actually update your different components remotely…
“We were talking about maintenance as a way to have an operational bike that will be more safe for you as the cyclist. For example, right now we’re integrating with some tyre pressure sensors. So if your tyre pressure is getting low it will let you know that you need to inflate them.”
DOES DIGITALISATION PUSH
BIKE COSTS – AND PRICES – UP?
“I believe eBikes are getting more expensive every year. And I think it’s actually a good thing because we’re moving from simply electrifying a bicycle to proposing a complete and qualitative mobility solution. Features that improve security safety or bike lifespan are, in our belief, necessary. And they’re necessary so that we’re able to put more people on bikes.
“Connectivity is tremendously helpful for these three topics. So yes, they’re going to have a more expensive retail
price because of more technology and more quality. But they’re also more durable and safer, so a cyclist will be able to use their eBike for longer, and in the end, it will be cheaper on the overall costs of usage for several years.”
WHEN CONNECTIVITY GOES WRONG (AND RIGHT)
“Connectivity can detract from your eBike experience, if the quality is bad. And like all other markets and for all products, there are bad ones that are really bad and really good solutions.
“We have so much experience in what we’re doing. And we believe that we are proposing the most qualitative solution on the market right now. We’re simplifying the eBike experience, future proofing the connectivity experience. This is what we do every day.”
THE BIG PICTURE
“We believe that the job we’re actually doing is digitalisation, meaning being able to connect the different stakeholders in the value chain…
“We’re simplifying the eBike experience, from buying your eBike even selecting which kind of model you’re going to how are you going to use it every day? How you’re going to maintain it, how are you going to resell it, how you’re going to make sure that the data of your bike is protected, and that you can have a good value of understanding the value of your bike life. All of these are our jobs, and we are sure simplifying the experience. And if we succeed to simplify the experience, we believe that we can convince anyone to get on the bike and to use it every day.”
To find out more about the Cycling Industry Podcast, contact: jon@cyclingindustry.news lloyd@cyclingindustry.news
Velco’s Mobitrax hardware collects data and triggers remote actions on the eBike
Preventative maintenance makes bikes more reliable and smart bikes can facilitate that
SERVICE (THE KEY)
In part 6 of this 7 part feature series, Cristóbal Pérez – a seasoned cycling industry professional with a track record of leading change – explores what the future could bring to our industry; the good, the bad, and the ugly. In each of these there is opportunity – if you can embrace the change required to unlock it. Good service is instantly recognisable and holds the key to future business. Ultimately, service means the difference between the death or survival of companies, argues Pérez…
Imagine you going to a restaurant. Meals are good, let us say proper meal, but the service is spectacular. The team is kind, smiling and paying attention to anything you wish intending to make you happy. It is not a cheap place, but you felt so good that you considered the ticket as an investment in hedonism.
Next week, you go to another restaurant, well known for its awards, Michelin Guide stars year over year, and exquisite cuisine. Second to none. But the human team does not satisfy you. They seemed distant, not completely concerned about your concerns and you left the place with a sensation of a hole in your pocket.
Should you plan to recommend either, or both, which one would you
return to, and publicly endorse, recommending to friends and family?
Yes, I know that it is a naïve exercise, but let me tell you that I would come back to the one where I felt I was important, well serviced.
This metaphor puts black on white what service means. Along with love, service is what links you to a brand. If you only need it, then, it is not a brand, but a maker, provider, or seller. But if you love it, call it brand. You only stick to a brand, are proud of it, or endorse it if you have an emotional connection to it.
Succeeding brands (not makers, providers, or suppliers) thrive because they are loved. For them, service plays a key role here. They always have a solution to your problem. And the willingness for this to be like that.
You feel no love for your milk or printing paper. Neither you wear a shirt with the logo of your favourite shampoo or therapeutic insoles. There is a preference, effectiveness, and favouritism, but no love.
You could describe service as:
• Your source of benefits, safety, solutions, and care. You feel that the provided service is good because it solved one of your problems. And, automatically, you prefer a provider in the certainty of what is going to happen from the order placement to the moment in which issues stumble across, if any.
• Your love and pride for something material pushes you to show off what you traded because it is cool, positions you at a certain social level, and identifies you with the
You recurrently go and endorse a brand if you feel that you are important to it and that it urgently runs to fulfil your needs or desires, argues Pérez
“YOU CAN PUSH THIS TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL IF YOU SERVICE BIKES SOLD OVER THE WEB AND YOU OPENLY ANNOUNCE IT WITH DEDICATED BANNERS, ADS, OR WHATEVER OTHER PLATFORM, SOMETHING I HAVE NOT SEEN YET AND THAT I MISS.”
group you want to belong to or, at least, you want to look alike.
This is a golden rule that always is followed. No matter which product, sector, industry, or trading relationship. Equally, if you are a professional or final purchaser. Your perception of a good service level is the same.
You recurrently go and endorse (proudly?) a brand if you feel that you are important to it and that it urgently runs to fulfil your needs or desires. Online businesses are not exempt from this. You buy digitally wherever you are well informed, you feel the confidence required when you are giving your money to a computer, and, listen to this, where you can return your purchase as easily as the purchase process went. A topic on its own.
Wrapping up, you buy where you trust, you are well cared for. Then you tell it to everybody. You might not think of it, but service underlies here as well.
In the cycling industry, things go in the same manner. Companies should work and decide based on servicing principles
and thanks to the assistance perception of their clients, not the self-awareness of it.
We can even see shops, not only leaning more on the service side to keep doors open but even depending on service for 100% of their income. The epitome of this happens when you see a dealer checking bikes that someone else sold. Nevertheless, you can push this to a whole new level if you service bikes sold over the web and you openly announce it with dedicated banners, ads, or whatever other platform, something I have not seen yet and that I miss.
If your service is at a high level, your turnover will be more stable, continuous, and helpful when sales drop or disappear. The most brilliant attempt to put service at the right level in the bike arena comes from Shimano and its Shimano Service Centre worldwide network. It is about branding the bike service. Do you need to service any bike? Think of Shimano Service Centre. Come what may. This is the intelligent, simple, and realistic idea behind the Big Blue Brand programme.
While online ratings have made customer service more widely visible, it's long been a vital component in a competitive market
“A COMPANY CAN LIVE WITHOUT ADVERTISING, SOCIAL MEDIA, OR MARKETING, BUT NOT WITHOUT SERVICE.”
Your workshop looks like an SSC, you wear SSC gear, you use Shimano original products to fix any bike and you will be able to outstand your SSC condition on the dedicated SSC web, your own business communication, or with the corporate image colouring on blue your workshop. But this is not about how you or your shop looks solely. In-depth, the Shimano Service Centre plan is about ensuring that you will also have all the knowledge and skills to face any bike repair. Here rests an extraordinary training platform that 24/7 and using any device will put in your hands any expertise and information about how to a Shimano product.
And, to me, what is key is that all that proven know-how can be displayed in the eyes of your clients with the corresponding paper or digital certificates. So, it is not only about having an SSC place but proving it through knowledge acquisition and certification.
Is the Shimano Service Centre the only brilliant idea for bike service and how to market it? Of course not, but this is the
one I know very well. Trust me.
Bike dealers must catch up when service is the thing. Now that eBikes have (and generally speaking bikes will) raised the bar of technification and now that we should expect a client coming from the car with the automobile industry service patterns and level, this is what will make a shop the chosen one.
Within my tenure at Macario, Shimano’s exemplary distributor in Spain, I was able to witness how some dealers had to ship the bike to Macario for its Di2 system to be updated without even taking the bike out of the shipping box. Why? The dealer did not have the under €100 cable to connect the bike to the computer.
This ancestral approach is not only acceptable today. Neither will your running away client.
A company can live without advertising, social media, or marketing, but not without service. Spanx, the whooping “shapewear” brand created by Sara Blakely was not able to invest in advertising for the first years of its existence. Word of
mouth acted as the most powerful and effective marketing tool ever.
“WHENEVER AN UNSATISFIED USER KNOCKS ON YOUR DOOR, IT SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD AND DEALT WITH AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD LOYALTY.”
The word service cannot be understood only as fixing problems and devices. Service is a holistic term that should comprehend the company culture, the approach before problems, and an intention to please your clients above any other consideration. So, for me, due to the aforementioned reasons, the service department, including the technical one, should be closely linked to/depend on the marketing division. Thus, whenever an unsatisfied user knocks on your door, it should be understood and dealt with as an opportunity to build loyalty.
Moreover, marketing initiatives should highlight the efforts and achievements of the brand in their daily doing as something good for you if you buy from me.
Indeed, a good service is not cheap, but there should be an allocated budget to make sure that it is going to work above any expectations. Merging/sharing service and marketing budgets is the right move.
I am an obsessive firm believer in service. I work hard for your well-earned salary. And I am in the right position if I demand the best possible in return. And I am ready to pay more for it. It does not mean more expensive, exclusive, or fancier, but better service.
Service will be the difference between the death or survival of companies.
Cristóbal Pérez is a seasoned cycling industry professional with a track record of leading change. Find him on LinkedIn… www.linkedin.com/in/c41
Service is a holistic term that should include company culture, approach to problems and the intention to please clients first
CAR SALES vs BIKE SALES
A manifesto for the cycling industry? Maybe nothing quite so highfaluting, but here CIN makes another case for the need to diversify the industry. It can only be a win-win for the sector, from bike brands and for bike shops too, we argue…
Times are tough and consumer spending is cautious, so it’s challenging for sectors across the board and not just for cycling, right? Well, it’s not quite so cut and dried as that, and diversification of customers is a major reason why some sectors are treading water or growing, while others – with a more limited customer base – are not.
Let’s look at some statistics gleaned from reliable UK sources…
2 YEAR VIEW: BIKES DOWN 24%
Bicycle Association figures for 2023 outlined how the UK cycling market saw value for the year fall 6%, and that came after an 18% decline in 2022. We’re obliged to note the familiar caveat that the decline was precipitous because of record highs in the
comparison years, thanks to lockdown-related sales. Nevertheless, bike sales are clearly at a low – down by around a quarter in two years. Even with what the Cycle to Work Alliance says are ‘robust’ numbers of cycle to work certificate sales issued in the first half of 2024 (88,500), it’s still an overall negative picture.
2 YEAR VIEW: CARS ARE UP 2.5%
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reported that the new car market had seen two straight years of growth, up 2.5% in July 2024, marking 24 consecutive months of growth. Crucially, SMMT stats noted that growth in July – as for much of the rest of 2024 – was sustained entirely by the fleet sector, which recorded a 13.0% increase in registra-
tions to achieve a 62.0% market share. Private demand continued to diminish, falling by -11.1% to account for 36.2% of deliveries in the month. Clearly then, as we’ve noted before, fleet or B2B sales have been propping up the car market.
WHY CARE ABOUT B2B SALES?
If you are in the industry because you love riding bikes, and/or the bikes you stock are clearly focused at consumers having fun on road, MTB/gravel, BMX or other related bikes, then the entire B2B bikes conversation may seem highly irrelevant. But, we argue, everyone benefits. We’d go further: That the other familiar challenge facing the trade – to appeal to a more diverse range of consumers – is really only just the start of the ‘to do’ list.
Fleet car sales have been the salvation of the UK car industry in 2024, grabbing an even greater share of the overall market than in 2023, stepping in while consumer aka private demand has been in the minus figures. In short, diversification has meant the difference between growth and contraction for the UK automotive industry. Statistics via the SMMT
NEW CAR SALES
ALL BIKE SHOPS BENEFIT
Allow us to speculate, but even if bike shops have little or no interaction with the B2B bike business, they still stand to benefit. Why? Because there will be less pressure on their suppliers if there is a more diverse range of customers.
“WOULD BIKE BRANDS BE LESS LIKELY – LET’S SAY FORCED – TO GO CONSUMER DIRECT AND/OR DILUTE THEIR BUSINESS WITH BIKE SHOPS, IF THEY HAD MULTIPLE CUSTOMER BASES, ONE CAPABLE OF PICKING UP WHEN ANOTHER FALLS OFF?”
Allow us to explain: Let’s imagine that Stag Bikes sells through bike dealers to the consumer, but it also s upplies (maybe direct) to the B2B market, eg company fleets, etc. So when consumer spending dries up, there’s a reasonable chance that businesses will continue to renew their fleets, providing a much needed stream of revenue. Bike brands will, arguably, be less pressured to consider new and hitherto unacceptable methods of shifting bikes.
In the highly unlikely event that your head is buried in the proverbial sand, it would be fairly obvious that there has recently been considerable pressure on bike brands to shift product, with some big names – notably in the USA – broadening how consumers can get hold of their products, whether that’s through general sports
retailers or down the dreaded consumer direct (D2C) route. Would those bike brands be less likely – let’s say forced – to go consumer direct and/or dilute its business with bike shops? We would argue so. That potentially leaves the traditional brand/distributor/shop route to market, with all the benefits it has for the cycle ecosystem including consumers, fully intact.
And maybe bike shops can directly benefit from B2B bike business too? There is considerable need for repairs and similar services to ensure company fleets remain ready to roll, whether that’s for a local delivery firm, one of the businesses on your nearby industrial estate that is encouraging its employees to cycle from the station rather than fill its not-bigenough car park, or a local school keen to reduce offer loan bikes to make it easier for families to choose active travel methods.
It’s relatively easy to type this stuff from the comfort of CIN Towers, and there is a shortage of magic wands to wave and make all the above happen, but – maybe – if the recent highs and lows weve seen have taught us anything, it is that the bike
Reduced waste Controls spend
Improves servicing efficiency
“EXPANDING THE CUSTOMER BASE IS BETTER FOR THE BIKE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE, EVEN IF YOUR BIKE SHOP NEVER SEES A CARGO BIKE THROUGH ITS DOOR.”
industry is resilient. But it could definitely be *more* resilient. Expanding the customer base is better for the bike industry as a whole, even if your bike shop never sees a cargo bike through its door. We may not see another economic and societal shock like Covid wrought. And even if we did, the bike industry might not be so susceptible to falling into a trap of over ordering (even if factories or raw material suppliers try to force their
hand). But 16 years on from the banking crash and 32 from Black Wednesday, it seems a safe bet that – if you plan to be in the business for the next couple of decades – there will be more where that came from. A glum note to finish on, maybe, but nevertheless a reminder that if there is some diversification of the bicycle business outlined above, next time around things probably won’t be quite so painful.
COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU?
Among the myriad challenges coming across the desk of local councils, air pollution might not be the absolute top priority, but evidence continues to mount over the detrimental and sometimes lethal effects of high levels of air pollution. International experts have found that 45% of the risk of dementia can be reduced – if healthy lifestyles are adopted. Reducing people’s exposure to air pollution is one of the key factors listed that can affect those health outcomes. And 2024 marks 11 years since the tragic death in Lewisham of nine year old Ella Kissi-Debrah – the first person in the world to have air pollution cited as a cause of death.
Despite the mounting evidence, congestion charging might be perceived to have stalled in recent years, but there’s one shining example in the UK of how similar local policy can effectively clean up air pollution – the expansion of ULEZ into Outer London.
Preliminary data released after the first full year of the London-wide expansion found it has been more successful than expected, with London’s air quality continuing to improve at a faster rate than the rest of England and pollutant emissions in 2023 reducing dramatically, compared to the scenario where ULEZ was not expanded.
The crux is, PM2.5 exhaust emissions from cars in Outer London are estimated to be 22% lower than without the expansion. Within the outer London ULEZ area, NOx emissions from cars and vans are estimated to be 7-13% lower than a scenario without the expansion. This is equivalent to removing 200,000 cars from the road for one year. Overall, NO2 concentrations in outer London are estimated to be 21% lower than without the ULEZ and its expansions.
Local authorities have “an essential role to play in delivering cleaner air for communities and nature right across England”, says DEFRA. “Boosting active travel and public transport to improve air quality” is a listed priority.
Given the success of ULEZ expansion, which overcame some vocal opposition to successfully reduce harmful air pollution, many councils throughout the UK will surely be taking note –and also of the potential to add to cash-strapped coffers via congestion charging. Congestion or emission zones have previously been found to bolster cycle numbers and with the combination of greater demand by businesses for cargo bike-based deliveries to help mitigate their C02 emissions, congestion and avoid city charging, it seems likely that demand for B2B bike business will increase alongside the proliferation of more urban charging in cities.
Our crystal ball is on the blink, but it seems an betting certainty that Covid won’t be the only economic shock of the 21st Century
Photo credit:
Greater London Authority
