CI.N Issue 06 2022

LASTING LOYALTY

WHEN Yvon Chouinard, the Founder of Patagonia, announced in September the ground-breaking move that he would sign over his company, divide into two and channel all profits to the planet via a charitable trust, the reaction online was immense. Virtue-signalling it is not to sign away an estimated $100 million per year of profits, to go further than ever to address the climate crisis. He, like most of us in the bike world, came to found his company through passion for the outdoors and the life it had given him. That passion was never without considering the negative externalities of doing business and so the company became known to be a pioneer in sustainability and carried that message up and downstream.

Chouinard ultimately is said to have become “horrified to be seen as a billionaire” and has long espoused the value of putting profit back toward the original vision to enjoy and preserve nature. When we start out in business everybody wishes to be successful, but success is measured in more than money. More than ever, as we look into the future, that’s something on which to reflect.

Now, I, as editor of a trade magazine, am not going to tell you to stop making money. That would be suicide on my part. What I am going to reveal is that I am not a shopper of things. I rarely buy things and when I do it is of necessity rather than want. It’s a simple life, when you have a bike that’s built to last and a world unexplored, all that’s really required is a decent mechanic thereafter.

Built to last is one thing that creates brand loyalty. Once you’ve worn technical fabrics that provide comfort and durability, you never will shop fast fashion again. The market has education of the masses to do here and somehow we need to have people try to understand the value in paying more to get more use from a product... ultimately, paying less over time.

Another thing that creates brand loyalty is understanding, without ambiguity, what a company stands for and that it is more than just being a cash machine for its owners. For this reason, I have always chosen the Patagonia brand above others when I have come to shop for clothing. The youth of Generation Z, should their limited funds permit it, have been shown to have a higher sensitivity to such things and with each generation’s passing, this message gets stronger as the urgent need to improve the planet’s fortunes resonates.

These are things for the bike business at large to consider and they have real circular value. Why did we enter this business, was money truly the only motivation and what good are we doing to inspire others in future to follow and improve upon the tyre prints left?

I want to end this column with a very special introduction to our team that likely needs no introduction, our new head of sales, Frazer Clifford. If you would like to reach out for commercial opportunities or catch up, you can contact him on: frazer@cyclingindustry.news

www.cyclingindustry.news

Publisher Jerr y Ramsdale jerr y@cyclingindustr y.news

Editor Mark Sutton mark@cyclingindustr y.news

Staff Writer Simon Cox simon@cyclingindustr y.news

Consultant Jon Harker jon@cyclingindustr y.news Head of Sales Frazer Clifford frazer@cyclingindustr y.news Head of Produc tion Luke Wikner production@cyclingindustr y.news Designers Dan Bennett Victoria Arellano

Published by Stag Publications Ltd 18 Alban Park, Hatfield Road St.Albans AL4 0JJ t +44 (0)1727 739160 w cyclingindustr y.news

TRIED AND TESTED

“

There is no doubting Nalini’s history, it’s incredible to think of the number of grand tour winners and individual stages that Nalini has on record.”

Now bringing the famed Italian brand into the UK, Occhio’s Mark Sinclair is not wrong, Nalini is within cycling’s bubble a household name and the kind of brand that attracts browsers simply for the logo on the sleeve. Such is the quality of the product it might seem a straight-forward process, but Mark says that “many UK consumers think of Nalini as a custom clothing brand.” That, of course, is not true and in fact under Occhio’s guidance the opportunity is squarely targeted at the retail experience. “There is a lot of work to be done to let UK consumers coming into cycling know that there is much more to Nalini, with a huge history…. And we’re working more as an extension of the Nalini office than as a distributor. We think the potential is great,” he adds.

So, with clothing sometimes a hard sell and branding only half the story, why should a bike retailer take note of Nalini’s expanded presence?

“With Occhio a new kid on the block we have had to start with a high appeal

offering. I think consignment or dropship, (or a mix of both) is the future for some IBDs and we’ve had the chance to start out as a blank canvas offering this route to market. Once Brexit was announced, and then Covid hit, and where some IBDs were either already struggling to compete with the large online retailers, or caught out by a high demand during lockdown that outstripped supply, independents have had it tough,” says Mark. “The time is right for IBDs in cycling to become more open to digital advances, and we’ve been keen to set up as a distributor who can make clothing as low risk and profitable as possible for retailers using some of the new digital services out there.”

Having worked the shop floor as a young athlete selling technical running shoes and clothing, Mark remains strongly biased towards independent retailers when it comes to high-end clothing and footwear. “I think they fill a vital role in the trade,” he says.

In order to slot right in with many indie businesses Occhio has already integrated itself with Citrus-Lime and Shopify, streamlining inventory management, among other services.

“As many IBDs will already know, Citrus-Lime provide a great service by making a menu of products available to cycling retailers from a variety of suppliers and they have created a system whereby products and all associated data can be uploaded onto a retailer’s website without fuss. This is an invaluable service to a small and lean retail business. We’ve invested in some bespoke software on our side to allow easy transfer of our product information and live inventory data to Citrus-Lime and their system distributes this to those signed up to their programme. We’re now at the stage where we’re very keen to talk to retailers who are already signed up with them to see how we can bring them the history and passion of the Nalini brand. Sales taken on a retailer’s website can either be shipped to the retailer’s own physical store, or D2C.”

The advantages to the retailer are clear; zero risk on stockholding and a service that can even include the retailer’s branding and leaflet insertion, even if it is shipped directly to the consumer via Occhio. That delivery can be turned

A heritage brand that’s instantly recognisable to lovers of cycle sport, Nalini is back in the UK with a bang and some excellent terms for stockists. Mark Sinclair of distributor Occhio.cc shares the details…

Nalini is not short of pro riders sporting its top-spec clothing

Occhio has already moved to integrate Nalini with CitrusLime and Shopify’s platforms

around the next working day too.

For those curious how balanced the range is, there are numerous options and even collections for gravel and mountain bike use. Mark briefs us on the options and the innovations found within the garments.

“Nalini has a few range types, with ‘Ergo’ for those that like speed, performance and ergonomics; ‘Ventures ‘for those that like the cool of gravel; ‘Color and Fun’ for great designs and great colour and graphics; ‘Single Track ‘for MTB, and of course there’s some fantastic women’s designs and cuts, which is an area where we wish to put a lot of effort, especially with our own on-line store at Occhio.cc. Price points run from very affordable mid-price points with fantastic quality for the price, to high-end products with stunning quality and finish. The vast majority of Nalini products are also created from scratch, always proprietary, and manu-

factured in Italy. That is not cheap. They even manufacture a lot of their own fabrics and pads on site,” he explains.

When it comes to women’s cycling, Mark is keen that the Nalini brand be known for its approach to equality and as a result we’re told of an individual sponsorship arrangement with a wellknown British female pro cyclist coming to light in the very near future “and we plan to bring on other female ambassadors,” he says.

“We have the ability to create a platform to discuss and promote women’s requirements in cycling clothing as there is so little focus on making great product available to women in the UK. Few retailers do it really well and the situation for retailers is a chicken and egg one. Nalini’s women’s products are so well designed, tailored specifically from ground up with completely different seam placements and cuts to the men’s pieces. They are not simply

women’s versions of men’s products. We’d like to put some effort into communicating how good they are.”

All of this comes backed up by a larger organisation; that is the MOA Sport business, which is also the manufacturer for other brands and supplier to countless pro tour teams. Campagnolo is just one such example from the same factory, and Occhio subsequently has the rights to distribute Campagnolo clothing in the UK too, giving dealers options in supply and on the very same terms.

The advantage of this big-name backing is clear and as a result Nalini are one of only a few brands that can claim to have its own proprietary pads, fabrics and treatments. In fact, Nalini can lay claim to be the first cycling clothing brand to have created a man-made microfibre pad to replace the reindeer skin that was used back in the day.

“The current technologies we love the most from Nalini are the three-way fabrics that have high stretch membranes to allow tight but supercomfortable aero fits, with breathable and reflective surfaces, like the Reflex based products in the new FW22-23 winter range,” says Mark of one selling point to be aware of.

If it’s the big sellers your store wishes to begin with in order to test the water, we’re recommended the mid-price point lines like Nalini’s Carena jacket and Classica bib tight. “I think we’d be willing to look at this idea of placing samples in stores,” says Mark on getting shops started.

If your store wishes to try Nalini or Campagnolo clothing in store, then you can contact Mark directly via email at Mark.Sinclair@occhio.cc.

Nalini’s parent company makes its own proprietary pads

Differing seam placements and cuts to the men’s gear tailor the goods to women

distributed by

WHAT, IN YOUR VIEW, ARE THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FACTORS DRIVING CONSUMER PURCHASES ON YOUR SHOP’S GOODS?

Dave Mellor, Woodside Bikeworks

Probably due to being a workshop-led business, most customers are happy to go with my recommendation on parts and accessories. I think to most consumers the number of brands out there offering seemingly (to them at least) similar products can be overwhelming. I guess the main advantage a bricks and mortar business has over online retailers is the expert advice we can offer, even if we might be slightly biased towards our stocked brands.

Second to that, I think most people are drawn to, or at least curious about, anything being hyped in the press, magazine and online reviews; these definitely sway buying decisions.

Paul Corcoran, Pennine cycles

For me, it’s marketing including what people read on the internet. That includes via our own social media and personal recommendations from me. Customers trust us and take our advice, which goes towards their final purchase the majority of the time.

Dan Makin, The Dirt Factory

Quality is one of the main factors, but so is the price point, even more so in the current times. But essentially we find that our customers look for a balance between a high quality product and price.

DOES RIDER OR TEAM SPONSORSHIP HAVE A NOTABLE WEIGHT ON THOSE BUYING GOODS – HOW MUCH EMULATION AND DESIRE FOR SIGNATURE LINES AMONG ENTHUSIASTS IS THERE?

Dave Mellor, Woodside Bikeworks

I think amongst enthusiasts, a brand that’s found its way on to a World Cup or EWS podium will certainly be more interesting. Possibly because I do also work with professional teams and athletes, but a frequent question from customers is what I think of the bike, tyres or brakes that a certain rider or team is using.

At the end of the day, bikers are all big kids, whether we like to admit it or not, so when we’re out riding for sure a part of your brain will be re-enacting the last race run or riding edit you saw (in your head at least). So, I think if a rider puts their name to a product or it has been used in a video, people will connect with it more than it being just another product with a decent review in the press.

Paul Corcoran, Pennine cycles

People are watching more cycling on TV and so are influenced by pro riders. I personally make decisions on what lines I stock based on rider profiles. Over the years we have sponsored young up and coming cyclists and currently sponsor our local cycling club, although I am not always sure how beneficial it always is.

Dan Makin, The Dirt Factory

We think it does, and this is another influential factor. The best example is probably the DMR deathgrip, customers went nuts for those at our indoor bike park and the trend has carried on to our shop at Farmer Johns. Another example, we recently stocked the new Matt Jones signature Gusset seat and straight away we had the younger riders buying it. In the current social media and influencer world we live in it seems inevitable that a good proportion of viewers are going to buy into whatever their idols are riding.

ARE YOU MORE INCLINED TO STOCK GOODS WITH A STRONG STORY FOR ENTHUSIASTS, OR DO OTHER FACTORS COME FIRST IN DECISION MAKING? IF SO, WHAT COMES FIRST?

Dave Mellor, Woodside Bikeworks

Ignoring the last couple of years of pandemic related supply issues where I think for many shops it was a case of stocking what’s available, my policy is to firstly ask, is it any good? Secondly, would I buy it?

Possibly not the most commercially astute way to do things, but I think its honest and builds trust consumers have in your shop. Also it hopefully saves future workshop time in dealing with product failures. As I mentioned earlier, customers ask a lot about products used by a rider or team and it is definitely important for them to have a connection with a certain product or brand, but as retailers and suppliers, I think

Paul Corcoran Pennine cycles

Dave Mellor Woodside Bikeworks

Dan Makin The Dirt Factory

BECOMING A PANELLIST

we also have a responsibility to help them sift through the hype and decide if it's right for the customer.

I’m fortunate to have a bit more insight than many into the relationship between brands and riders. Obviously there’s no better environment for testing and development than the highest level of competition in any discipline of cycling, but remember that what the products a rider or team uses will be much more a financial decision than personal preference in most cases. Your customer may have seen Rider X win a World Cup on those new pedals everyone’s talking about, but he won’t have seen how many sets his mechanic threw in the bin over the weekend.

I think in summary, it’s important to stock product that has a story or connection to a rider, or event, but look past the marketing and help customers make the right decision for them.

Paul Corcoran, Pennine cycles

We are not influenced by strong storylines, but obviously take note of current trends in cycling which might be being pushed. Availability of goods is always a big influence for us and supplier reliability. There are brands that have a history that could influence us, but equally it depends on the ownership and UK suppliers.

Dan Makin, The Dirt Factory

Having a good story does help, but it's not the deciding factor, the product has to be high quality first and foremost. I think a product would soon get found out if the story was good, but was poor quality. Perhaps if you have the perfect blend of quality, price and a good story you'll be on to a winner. We're not on any commission here, but a good example I can think of is the Guy Martin bike cleaner, which is sent out with no water, just a sachet to mix yourself, thus they claim it reduces their carbon footprint because it's lighter when shipping. This mixed with the legend himself creates a good story.

SPECIFICALLY ON THE MEDIUM OR LOCATION OF MARKETING, WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE CYCLING MOST VISIBLE TO THE PUBLIC OR THE ENTHUSIAST?

Dave Mellor, Woodside Bikeworks

On the whole, the industry does very well at marketing to enthusiasts through different mediums. More could still be done to promote cycling to the wider public from the point of view of both sustainable transportation and as a sport. Obviously it’s not an easy task although Cycling UK does some great outreach work.

I’d like to see marketing focus on the actual experience of riding a bike similar to how it’s done in sports like surfing or snowboarding. Even though so many enthusiasts are tech geeks I think this approach would broaden the sport’s appeal rather than a constant stream of new products or colours.

Paul Corcoran, Pennine cycles

You don't always know what markets are being reached via the internet and you need to use all media outlets, including paper copy, to ensure the public and enthusiasts are reached. I'd like to see manufacturers and suppliers advertising the products that can be purchased at independent bike shops. Otherwise, it can appear that products are only available on the internet and not at bike shops.

WHAT DEMOGRAPHICS, IF ANY, DO YOU FEEL ARE LET DOWN BY INDUSTRY OUTREACH EFFORTS?

Dave Mellor, Woodside Bikeworks

Again, I think we’re really good at preaching to the converted, but could do more to recruit new people to cycling of all disciplines; particularly the next generation.

Thinking back to when I first got into mountain biking in the early-mid 90s,

reading mags like MBUK, it felt like the articles and ads were aimed at me and my mates, building trails and jumps in the woods. Now I’m approaching my mid-40s, and yes, the sport itself has grown up a bit, it still feels like the sport is aimed at my age group. If I was a teenager now I’d probably think mountain biking was something my parents did on a weekend.

It’s fair to say the industry realised quickly that there wasn’t much money in the dirt jumping and trials trends of 20-odd years ago, but what it did do was get a generation excited about playing out on bikes, and most of us are still here. Let’s have some more pump tracks and skate parks, and more affordable, little hardtails to ride them on, please. That way we’ll still be selling carbon dream machines in 30 years’ time.

Paul Corcoran, Pennine cycles

We like to support suppliers who know and understand our business and recognise what we are about. We give a personal service ourselves and expect to receive similar from the suppliers we choose. I'm not always sure suppliers are giving customers what they want and sometimes just need to shift their stock.

Dan Makin, The Dirt Factory

Probably the low-income families and individuals. We do a lot of community work in deprived areas around the UK when touring our modular pump track and air bag, so we get a good insight into the lack of awareness out there. On the plus side, more and more facilities are popping up, but there is a real lack of strategy when it comes to reaching under-represented groups to get them active and involved. Local authorities need to catch up a bit and realise there are new and emerging activities, interests and opportunities and not just the traditional football, rugby, swings and slides. More needs to be done on promoting access to places to ride, basic advice for beginners, how to join a club/social ride as well as the safety and etiquette side of things.

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COST OF GIVING

For any retail business there is a fine line to tread to balance the payroll and profitability and that’s true now more than ever. CI.N’s data snippet looks at current industry salary trends…

HOW HAS YOUR PAY STRUCTURE CHANGED YEAR-ON-YEAR?

ANALYSIS

The million-dollar question for everyone at the moment is, more or less, can I have a million dollars to pay my bills, please? Some exaggeration, perhaps, but circumstances are changing and people being forced to adapt with them.

The examination of whether pay structures have changed will be a lot more interesting reading in next year’s dataset, but as of the start of this year, this is how the picture looked.

Generally speaking, wages are said to be going up, which as you’ll read further on in this article, may not be a proven fact. Nearly a fifth of bike shop and workshop traders apparently got an above inflation increase in 2021, which was long before the figures got scary in Q3 of this year. At the time and speaking generally, right off the back of the Covid-led ‘bike spike’, cash was more readily available to business owners and so wages could rise accordingly where staff had put in a shift managing the increased footfall. A further fifth got a wage boost in line with inflation at the time.

10% of our pool have committed to providing a Living Wage, which tracks ahead of national metrics and adjusts to account for the disparity of cost of living in London. This is widely considered a benchmark for what the minimum wage should be, from an employee’s perspective.

As for commissions and bonuses, 8% of retailers have leaned on this tool to encourage staff to engage and drive personal performance, which can be mutually beneficial for business and worker alike.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, WAGES ARE SAID TO BE GOING UP, WHICH AS YOU’LL READ FURTHER ON IN THIS ARTICLE, MAY NOT BE A PROVEN FACT.

22%

£18,001 to £20,000 6% 24%

£20,001 to £23,000

£23,001 to £26,000

£26,001 to £29,000

£32,000+

34 26 35 31 8 4 4 MENTIONS

18%

£16,000 to £18,000 3% 3% 25%

WHAT IS THE AVERAGE SALARY FOR YOUR MECHANICS?

ANALYSIS

We’ve dug back into the archives to bring about some comparison against CI.N’s 2018 market study in order to present the long term view on wage packet movement.

Back then the salaries of mechanics were weighted at the lower end of the spectrum when compared to the national average and by some margin. To put some figures to it, just shy of a fifth of the mechanics in the market were earning between only £15,000 and £17,500 annually, while 18% slotted into the next tier; £17,500 to £20,000. In total 38% earned were sub £20,000 four years ago.

Fast forward to the start of 2022 (admittedly long before inflation boarded the runaway train) and representation in the lowest bracket (£16,000 to £18,000) tallied 24%. While the bracketing is marginally different and so not directly comparable, it’s fair to say that baseline mechanic wages at the lower end have not matured and that is despite a major shift in the marketplace to put emphasis on service work, plus a typically now more complex product landing as a result of the eBike’s advance, plus top-end innovations, like integration of cables, becoming the norm. To round out the sub £20,000 wages, a further 18% said they earned between £18 and £20k. In 2022, a higher wedge of mechanics, 42%, earned sub £20,000.

All of this may well change. There is some consensus building around the true value of the modern bike mechanic’s skills and training house leaders like Sean Lally and Graeme Freestone-King are among those urging shops to price their services higher to reflect the skill of the worker.

This is a category we will watch with interest in our incoming 2023 dataset.

11%

12%

£20,001 to £23,000 30% 1% 4%

£23,001 to £26,000

£26,001 to £29,000

£32,001 to £35,000

£35,001 to £38,000

£38,001 to £45,000

£45,000+

£18,000 to £20,000 8% 3% 9% 22%

WHAT IS YOUR MANAGEMENT STAFF(S) SALARY?

ANALYSIS

Again with the benefit of historical data we can measure the workshop management’s pay trend. The spread of salaries is a little less concentrated, as you might expect for a senior role, but the greatest cluster in our findings from four years ago sat within the £20,000 to £22,500 bracket at 12.14% and £22,500 to £25,000 bracket at 13.29%. Just over 8% earned north of £30,000 and 1% breaching £40,000 annually. Representing a fifth of staff on the managerial payroll were those earning below £20,000 per year.

Now to the present day and starting with the bad news. Our sub £20,000 per annum pool has again mirrored the trends of the mechanic’s wage and actually advanced to make up 30% of management salaries.

Shop staff will by now be wishing for some good news and after viewing the datasets back to back so do we. So here it is; where just over 8% earned over £30,000 four years ago, now the same portion earn over £45,000 per year. This perhaps illustrates that top-end wages have grown at a faster pace than bottom end pay packets. In fact, compiling the brackets above £29,000 we are able to determine that 26% of salaries in bike shop management now sit north of that figure.

Therein lies a microcosm of the UK’s payroll disparities – those already earning ahead of the average market rates are seeing their wages rise much faster than those earning comparably very little.

41 13 30 16 15 5 2 4 11 MENTIONS

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A WHOLE OTTER LOVE…

Events are back and in the case of the Sea Otter Europe, with a bang. Not far off 60,000 took to the twoand-a-half-day festival that has called cycling mecca Girona home since 2016, albeit with a Covid-based interruption. Before we go much further, if those numbers, the array of events on offer for the enthusiast and some of the snaps on these pages are grabbing you, then diarise September 22nd to 24th in your 2023 calendar.

While the expo zone is not the only reason to attend, with that level of enthusiast footfall 220 exhibitors representing 350 brands were graced with an opportunity to tap into a captive audience and one that seemed hungry for a demo experience. 30 bike labels took advantage, providing fleets to customers who, judging by our failed last-minute attempts to get a ride out, had pre-booked in numbers. In all it is believed that north of 3,000 demos took place over the weekend on tracks that began on the showground and went well beyond into the heart of Girona’s cycling country.

Albert Balcels, the Show Director said the “demo bike is important to the show expe-

rience, and to the brands. The tracks we have on offer are really well placed for the show, offering an array of technical terrain and a fair challenge for bikes of all styles.”

In the city centre it was evident that locals and tourists alike were making a day of it, taking on lengthy rides and then returning to one of several famed bike cafes.

Sea Otter’s Show Director knows well the numbers of what this is worth to Girona and why the event has earned its kudos with the locals.

“In 2019 our event was worth around €5 million in direct economic value and maybe €3 million additionally in indirect publicity for Girona. From the first day we thought it is possible to make this an international event with brands that serve all markets and that’s what Sea Otter Europe has become. There are lots of people exhibiting and visiting here that are looking at expanding export network. We focus on helping these brands grow, expand their public relations and network with enthusiast consumers from across Europe,” says Albert, speaking from inside the converted stadium, itself housing registration for athletes, as well

Being on the ground at Sea Otter Europe, there could be little doubt that this European staple has bounced back with a bang from the lows of Covid. CI.N made the journey and found an appetite in the expo zone for trade…

Top: Blub products are now carrried by Bob Elliot and co.

Bottom: Vaude are profiled at the end of this magazine

Sea Otter Europe

as a hall of fame for retro bikes celebrated in times gone by.

The response to the series of competitive events was strong with more than 4,000 cyclists taking part in the fifteen races, be that events amateurs or for world champions, Olympic medallists and elite athletes, both male and female, across all kinds of cycling.

Enthusiast cycling aside and in keeping with the market’s prevailing trend of transport cycling hogging the limelight, Sea Otter Europe reacted this year to make sure that the casual cyclist was catered for too.

“This is the first edition where we also introduced a broader mobility festival and it is starting from a low base, for us this is a new part of the event and one to grow. It’s important for the industry to see this part as it is; two lines for consumer interaction, both with an array of enthusiast draws and those who may pass through just for mobility ideas. The two will rise together,” explained Balcels.

Looking over the filled festival grounds it is hard to know where the event goes in terms of a growth footprint, but there is apparently room.

“There remains some space close to

the river, however there are other possibilities even across the river. We would like to grow to be a point of reference for all of Europe and so we are thinking how to create a better display for brands putting all of our space to use,” he adds.

While there is no trade specific focus, the event has served as a teaser to press in this and previous years. Scott and Haibike were among those bringing embargoed bikes along for the purpose of a soft launch behind closed doors, while Merida too was using the event to platform its new One-Sixty and One-forty. Ultimately, Girona is hot property for dropping exclusives in an environment that is incredibly well geared up for cycle tourism and testing.

There is no special emphasis for Balcels and his team, however. In his view and demonstrated by the diversity in test track users, this is an event for all the family and one that will breed the next generation of enthusiasts.

“For us it is important to stay across all segments, for family, children and professionals – this is a cycling lifestyle event. You can see it both in our streets and our show, this is the

feeling we are looking to create, where there is something to engage everyone,” he says.

One of the highlights introduced this year was the new Canyon-sponsored Urban Ride Girona. Created especially to showcase the new routes through Girona city centre, put into place as part of a drive to change transport habits, this element linked with the new Urban Mobility Festival element of the event.

Next to this, the competitive edge shines too. On the second day the Scott Marathon by Continental placed upcoming amateurs alongside names like Sergio Mantecón (Scott Cala Bandida), Francesc Guerra (Scott Cala Bandida), José Dias (BUFF Megamo), Hugo Drechou (BUFF Megamo), Matthew Beers (Toyota specialized) and race victor Peeter Pruus (BUFF Megamo). As should always be the case, women’s cycling was given its time in the limelight too, with the equivalent race seeing Colombian Mónica Calderón (Bikes Plus) take the top spot on the podium.

Add to this the 340km Canyon Pirinexus Challenge, a gravel race across the nearby Pyrenees, as well as the three distance (70, 100 and 140km) Continental Ciclobrava and visitors had a plethora of activity to engage with.

Balcels concludes by inviting the industry to come along to see for themselves next year. “My main message to bike industry is book your trip for the 22nd to 24th of September 2023. We will try to follow the same path. We’ll grow slowly, but grow the offering, nonetheless. The plan is to consolidate the urban mobility area for next year. This, we think, could grow sharply. We had 30 brands join in only two months of explaining the concept this year.”

www.seaottereurope.com

Left: Show organiser Albert Balcels gave the exhibition’s return a big thumbs up

“WHILE THERE IS NO TRADESPECIFIC FOCUS, THE EVENT HAS SERVED AS A TEASER TO PRESS IN THIS AND PREVIOUS YEARS.”

nearly

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BUSINESS WITH BRITAIN REMAINS INTERESTING TO EXHIBITORS

With Paligap now having closed its doors the presence of Cippolini, DMT, Ale and other labels took our curiosity and we were quick to find answers about where brands would find new homes. Ale Clothing has now inked a deal with Chicken Cyclekit, while Cipollini and DMT are in discussions and narrowing down with a view to announcing shortly. Keep an eye on the website for more as we have it.

Elsewhere and as reported online, Blub Lubricants has gone to Bob Elliot, handing the distributor a secondary workshop essentials label to sit alongside Weldtite.

As for opportunities that exist for future distribution partnerships, Sea Otter Europe had a number of brands that were openly displaying with a view to attracting partners. Among those, were MSC Tyres, started by former Maxxis staffer Ferran Marias. He told CI.N “I started MSC four years ago having previously designed for Maxxis and worked closely with their roster of pro riders. We are already in Spain, plus with a subsidiary in Colombia, but international partnerships are becoming very interesting to us and we are considering moving our production to Europe, probably to Turkey, soon, so supply will be closer to home.”

In all there are 17 tyres in the range,

spanning road, gravel and MTB, plus tubeless tyre inserts offered too. Add to this a new electric mountain bike tyre under the E-Volt banner and the catalogue is comprehensive. Furthermore, new road compounds are set to launch by December this year.

Sticking with an off-road offering that may appeal to distributors and shops, Finna Cycles of Barcelona specialises in gravel bikes and had taken to Sea Otter with a view to making itself more widely known and that includes to potential UK suitors. With its own equipment ready gravel bikes and framesets, as well as a slowly developing urban bike offering, the brand is sat in two growing segments of the market. Brand and Marketing Manager Aleix Bertran confirmed to CI.N that recruiting a UK partner would appeal.

On the service side, ISB Sport Bearing was likewise enthusiastic about UK representation and the opportunity to become a staple of workshops across Europe with its service and performance bearing solutions. With more than 50 years of heritage, ISB has been around the block when providing frictionless solutions for cycling and has options to cover headsets, bottom brackets, suspension bearings and those for wheelsets.

The bike demos were booked out from day one

Abus launched the Airdrop and Cliffhanger helmets

The path to the racetracks was heaving throughout the duration of the event, with races galore to entertain

“SEA OTTER EUROPE HAD A NUMBER OF BRANDS THAT WERE OPENLY DISPLAYING WITH A VIEW TO ATTRACTING PARTNERS.”

PROFILE

HYENA EBIKE SYSTEMS

HYENA IN THE WORKSHOP

Hyena eBike systems may have, until very recently, flown under the radar of many in the industry.

Now featuring on bikes from Trek and Cannondale, among others, they’re about to become commonplace. CI.N speaks to the eBike OEM to learn more about the business…

TELL US ABOUT THE HYENA BUSINESS, HOW IT STARTED AND THE BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY?

Founded in 2013, Hyena is located in Taichung, Taiwan, the world's biggest bicycle industry R&D and manufacturing cluster.

We started the eBike system development from the most essential core technologies: system integration, motor controlling and driving, HMIs, PLUS software integration. In the past ten years, we have extended our expertise to the whole system components and smart parts and expanded the software service to a cloud-based ecosystem.

We achieve this by building a team of experts in the design, development, manufacturing, and service of the cycling and electronic industry, now with more than 150 members, and only focused on eBike innovation. By providing our products and services, we have already assisted global bicycle brands and manufacturers in creating over 400,000 units of high-performance and intelligent eBikes worldwide. Add to that, we keep creating groundbreaking innovations by exploring possibilities together with our business partners.

HYENA HAD GONE UNDER THE RADAR A LITTLE UNTIL EUROBIKE, WHERE YOU REVEALED SOME TOP TIER COLLABORATIONS. WHERE MIGHT WE SEE YOUR PRODUCTS IN MY22/23?

As we displayed in the Eurobike, in Europe, visitors will have seen clearly some key models from our partners, though we cannot name them all.

There will be more new eBike models to be released to EU and US markets soon. In the past we have also assisted national sporting goods chains and brands under the PON umbrella in the development of eBikes and software, though some of these models are no longer on the market.

(Editor’s note: among those models built with a Hyena system as spotted at Eurobike were Trek’s FX+ 2 and a Cannondale Treadwell Neo 2. It is also evident that Halfords’ Carrera eBikes carry some Hyena product.)

HOW HAS BUSINESS BEEN SINCE THAT EUROBIKE SHOWCASE AND IS THE DEMAND FOR MOTORS STILL OUTSTRIPPING SUPPLY GENERALLY?

Speaking the truth, the global bicycle market seemed a little bit overheated in 2020 through 2021. Fast forward to the present and the delivery time of bicycle industry products, order numbers, and the market requirements are returning to a reasonable level after 2022. I won’t say things are still ‘outstripping supply’, but the business is running smoothly; also we see a higher potential in the future.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT AND POTENTIAL OUTPUT FOR THOSE LOOKING FOR A SUPPLIER?

From 2020, due to high eBike system demand, we invested in improving and expanding Hyena's production capacity. These changes include expanding our supply chain network, investing in facility equipment, optimising equipment utilisation, and increasing storage capacity. As a result, our current capacity (2022) is approximately 300,000 sets of drive systems per year and will gradually increase to 800,000 sets per year by 2025.

IN YOUR VIEW, WHAT IS IT THAT IS MAKING HYENA STAND OUT TO BIKE MANUFACTURERS?

Overall, it has to be the high system design and integration ability. Also it’s our strong software capability to provide end-to-end service. Suppose bicycle brands are looking for drive systems that can create an eBike market segmentation other than the large system suppliers such as Bosch and Shimano; in that case, we will be among the best choices.

Different from mid-drive, for the hub-drive system, the motor, sensor, and controller are separated. To have all of these system components work as one requires extra effort, including circuit design, communication protocol, connector unification, through to the deeper system firmware design. Furthermore, partners need to see high integration from system to software and ability to tune the performance.

In the past, both manufacturers and brands often encountered problems in system integration and the after-sales service issues that followed after the product listing. As the market becomes more mature, system integration, software functions, and service are more and more important.

Hyena’s dashboard makes service, tuning and more simple for partners

For the ODM business partners, we can offer flexible system design and customisation based on Hyena's experience. For brands that want to approach the market quickly, we have mature standard drive units suitable for different bikes. Development time can be trimmed with our team’s help.

WHAT KINDS OF BIKE ARE BEST SUITED TO YOUR PRODUCT RANGE AND WILL YOU BROADEN TO REACH NEW APPLICATIONS?

Our current target category is compact and lightweight eBikes, including city/trekking and road/gravel bikes. Our target segment is premium entrylevel to mid and high-level eBikes in the advanced mass market. We set this target because we see more significant potential in how these electric cycling segments will grow quicker and better with our support.

In the future, with more mature technology and resources, we will definitely gradually expand our solution to more bike categories.

You may have guessed, to provide our partners and the market with more solutions, we are also developing light and compact mid-drive systems, and the reveal is not too far away.

AS FOR BATTERIES – WHAT CAN YOU SUPPLY TO MANUFACTURERS AND ARE YOU MOTORS CROSS COMPATIBLE WITH OTHER BATTERIES?

We have four frame-integrated batteries and one rack-type battery on our standard product line. Because Hyena batteries are equipped with our optimized self-designed BMS and connected to the system, we do not open the use of third-party batteries for standard drive system units. This limitation is to keep the quality of our products and services.

ASIDE FROM DRIVE, WHAT ADDITIONAL FEATURES DO OR WILL YOUR MOTORS INCLUDE IN FUTURE?

The most important feature is that we are enabling more eBike components to be connected to the system, powered directly from the system battery, and for these to be accessed, adjusted, and controlled through the Hyena applications. To this end, we are cooperating with many electronic component brands/suppliers to develop related products, of course, the electronic lock that can be controlled by the system and rider app is also one of them.

AT THE WORKSHOP LEVEL HOW SERVICEABLE IS YOUR PRODUCT AND WHAT TRAINING EXISTS FOR WORKSHOPS?

In each bicycle model project we provide the bicycle brand and their technical service department with sufficient specialised service training, documents and instructional videos. These ensure that the brand can fully deliver the service materials of different eBike models and system configurations to their dealers.

On the service market end, the Hyena Service Tool app provides a detailed eBike system diagnosis, troubleshooting, and maintenance guide. This helps bike service personnel connect Hyena-system-driven eBikes to a computer, identify and solve the issues.

Moreover, we have after-service points in Europe and US to provide warranty claims services, local replacement parts delivery, and aftermarket spare parts procurement. We just set up a technical service centre in the Netherlands to provide local technician field support, technical consultation, training (to brands and their dealers), plus troubleshooting.

As for the need for local delivery that is emerging, it is definitely a trend from our perspective. Establishing a manufacturing base locally is one of our major goals. We've executed our local service centre, so the next step would be shipping goods and performing final assembly and quality check locally.

WHAT IS HYENA’S LONG-TERM VIEW OF THE EMOBILITY MARKET AND HOW IT MAY CHANGE THE WORLD?

We believe that for the hardware products (eBike and its key component), bicycles will eventually return to the essence of riding, closer to traditional bicycles, but with more advanced technologies to help people travel more easily and effortlessly, or pursue higher sports performance.

For the additional function and software part, the smart technology of bicycles will be like various smart mobile devices or home appliances and their software applications, with wider compatibility, more expansion functions, and better user-friendly designs. These will gradually develop towards open source and various platform compatibility advances. That's why we set further goals and put more effort into the software development process.

As I said, we see a greater potential in how assisted cycling grows from here. Hyena will keep fulfilling our path and roles which we aim to accomplish, joining hands with our bicycle industry partners to make difference. Don't hesitate to join us. It's all about driving the world forward through the power of smart two-wheel solutions, eventually creating a world built on sustainable mobility.

www.hyena-ebike.com

Hyena is at present a hub motor specailist, but the brand confirmed mid-motors are in the pipleine

2022 has seen the worst squeeze on consumer disposable income that most people can remember. With rising energy prices, rising interest rates and mortgages, low growth and high inflation, the UK fares worst against all the G-7 group of developed nations. Added to this, the new Government’s mini budget, announced on Friday 23rd of September resulted in a further devalued pound, raising both the cost of importing goods and the prospects of additional interest rate rises.

The bike trade has already been feeling the pinch. Statistically, UK bike sales are down by a quarter against pre-COVID levels, according to the Bicycle Associa-

tion, while eBike sales have stalled, according to latest update from the BA’s market data study, which tracks 80% of the industry’s retail sales at point of purchase.

With affordability and disposable income increasingly polarised within UK society, we can expect the majority of consumers to struggle with purchasing a new bike. Some may downgrade their purchase expectations; others may reinvest in their existing bikes through servicing and replacement parts. But for those seeking a brand-new model, monthly payments via cycle-to-work or finance schemes may prove the only way to manage this purchase.

Energy price-cap: Earners on £45,000 will struggle with high bills as well as vulnerable, Nadhim Zahawi says

Nadhim Zahawi says those on salaries of £45,000 will need help from the Government paying energy bills as huge hike will not just affect those on benefits

Almost two-thirds of the 2022-23 personal tax cut gains will go to the richest fifth of households (Resolution Foundation)

With the consumer generally shopping with greater caution, the bike industry will have to adapt its messaging to meet them head on, writes John Styles

Joanna Flint of The Green Commute Initiative says there may now be “caution at the tills”

Certainly, in my day-to-day role, many of the stores I deal with are reporting a significant uplift in these enquiries. There may also be a significant tranche of “wealthy but worried” consumers. Those with savings, who could buy a new bike outright, but instead wish to retain a buffer against further financial shocks. Those consumers may seek out 0% or C2W deals especially, to feel more secure. If consumer behaviour has shifted towards purchasing fewer bikes, could monthly payment schemes be one way

out of this decline? And is the industry doing enough to promote this type of purchase? To answer this question, we visited the home pages of a representative sample of 100 IBD websites and reviewed the home page content of the “Big 6” national cycle chains. Granted, that’s a fairly “broad brush barometer” but, here is what we found.

Looking at the IBD market we see the primary focus is on specific bikes and on the retailer’s own store. With 36% of IBDs are focusing on “Bike-related” message, such as specific new model in

stock. While 30% major on a message around their store, quite often just “welcome to my store”. On the other hand, 10% are clearly motivated to move stock, and 5% focus on a key accessory, such as a new clothing line or turbo trainer. A further 12% have miscellaneous messages such as events, demo days or race winners. To quote Donny Perry’s excellent book “Leading out Retail” – many are collectively a little guilty of “feature spouting”? I.e., talking about what interests us (our stores and our favourite new bikes), instead of focusing on what the consumer needs right now (a way of affording a bike). What I find concerning about the overall picture are three things:

1) WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT MONTHLY PAYMENTS ENOUGH

Firstly, our sample of 100 IBD websites found that 71% mention monthly payments of some kind on their home page, but it’s rarely the main message. Often, it’s very small or hidden below the fold. Only 7% of the IBD market are featuring a prominent main message around cycle to work and/or finance schemes. More worrying, the other 29% either don’t offer this service or keep it hidden at a level below the home page. Given that much of the country is struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, I’m not convinced that the industry is doing enough to push the message about how we can make bikes more affordable to purchase. Okay, monthly payments have a charge and therefore an impact on margin. But isn’t it better to sell a bike with a reduced margin than not sell a bike at all? Especially as a monthly scheme can sometimes increase the customer’s budget.

Jonathan Harrison from ActSmart says on the finding: “Previously published independent market research clearly shows that customers now expect to be offered multiple payment methods and will look to shop elsewhere if they aren’t available or easily identified at the beginning of the customer journey. As the average price of bike, and in particular eBikes, has increased coupled with challenges faced with the cost-of-living increases, there is an even greater need to offer retail finance. New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that consumer finance new business grew by

compared with the same month in 2021. In the first seven months of 2022, new business was 22% higher than in the same period in 2021.”

NATIONAL CHAIN STORE BIKES FEATURED ON HOME PAGE? MAIN MESSAGES

HALFORDS Yes

2)

WE’RE HARDLY TALKING ABOUT COST SAVINGS AT ALL

Secondly, prior to making a purchase of a new bicycle, some consumers may need to be convinced, shown or enlightened about the cost savings that they can make versus, for example, public transport or using a car. Although some brands have been pushing this message in the wider public domain (Raleigh and Specialized most notably) it doesn’t appear that very many websites are featuring content around affordability. Or the savings generated by using bicycles for commuting and everyday transport. Or as another industry rep put it to me “A stores’ worst customer is an existing cyclist, who already has most of what they need. What stores need is more non-cyclists to turn into cyclists”.

EVANS Yes

DECATHLON Yes

Save up to 48% with Cycle to Work + Get Up to £1000 Trade in when you bike a new bike

We are Bike People + Cyclesheme Now Accepted Online

Save £100 on selected bikes from one category

GO-OUTDOORS Yes £170 off a specific model

ARGOS No Bike Buying Guide

SPORTS DIRECT No Shop All Bikes

3)

WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT SERVICING ENOUGH

Thirdly, I found only one store with a prominent home page message about servicing. And if cash strapped consumers are repairing bikes instead of purchasing them, wouldn’t it make sense to talk about that? Perhaps if workshops are busy repairing bikes, we have a tendency to think “well this is ok, I have enough bikes to repair”. But perhaps, the opposite may be true? When the workshop is busy, we should be featuring a message about repairs. Because for every consumer who is fixing their bike, there are countless more who could but may be anxious about what it may cost. A few more case studies and examples may help?

According to Adam Tranter, Founder of the #BikeIsBest campaign, this could be huge untapped market: “We are focussed on the interested but concerned group, which is made up of around 60% of the adult population. These are people that want to cycle for everyday purposes but don’t because of various barriers; the demand is there and it’s huge. It’s this group that represents the single biggest opportunity the cycling industry has had in a generation. However, barriers don’t just disappear. We need to push hard for change and that’s what the campaign is about.”

Joanna Flint from Green Commute Initiative further comments: “GCI is still enjoying a high volume of orders; however, the average order value has come down slightly. This might indicate some caution at the tills. We are noticing an increase in the number of corporate clients signing up which we attribute to organisations pressing ahead with net zero targets, as well as helping employees gain access to affordable travel solutions. Without doubt, customers do their initial research online, therefore having an up-to-date website reflecting all payment options is key. Monthly payments options are a must to help win new customers. This is crucial for those on low incomes who are in most need of affordable active travel options as private car ownership becomes unaffordable and reduced, or disrupted, public transport is often unusable.”

NATIONAL CHAIN WEBSITES

Looking at the more mainstream cyclist who might purchase from a national chain, there is again quite a mixed picture on marketing (*at September 2022, the time of our research). Whilst Halfords leads with two very strong cost saving headlines on its homepage, the other five national chains do not. Evans leads with the headline We Are Bike People, supplemented only by a secondary banner header highlighting Cyclescheme. Decathlon and Go-Outdoors simply

offer a discount on selected lines. Argos and Sports Direct don’t appear to have any specific messaging around cycle sales with their two standard messages “buying guide” and “shop all bikes” acting as a simple banner or entrance point to their online catalogue.

Of course, every retailer is different and perhaps this is what their customer wants. And of course, marketing plans and budgets are often planned months and years in advance. But it begs the question, is the message appropriate right now? Is it enough? Is the industry (collectively) agile and fleet of foot in a rapidly changing market?

SENSE CHECK AND EXPLORE

The exercise we’ve conducted is of course quite a blunt instrument, so how might a store or marketing manager sense check their consumers behaviours? As a former web designer and marketing manager, I’m a little out of practice, but my inclination would be start looking here:

1) SIMPLE PAGE STATS

No doubt you have historical data about how consumers find your site and what pages they visit. It would be useful to know how many are landing directly on your repairs or monthly payments page, because that’s what they were searching for? Another metric to track might be their journey by price point. Do they arrive because

you mentioned a shiny new flagship machine, but after a short while, many jump to a lower price model?

2) GOOGLE ANALYTICS

A great thing to understand might be consumer sentiment as they are beginning their purchasing journey. For example, how many start with “Bikefit London” or “Road Bike with 105” as opposed to “Cheap Bike Service London” or “0% finance scheme buy a bike”. The most important thing might be to discover how this has changed and over what time scale.

3) SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

Social media spend is all about the bang for the buck, what engagement, reach and ultimately spend, do we get back from a given budget. My suspicion is that campaigns planned some time back, especially product launches, may not be achieving the types of metrics that many were aiming for? It might be worth exploring which topics are gaining greater traction. Or perhaps commissioning some content around how bikes save you money in general, money saving tips once you own a bike, repairs and monthly payments?

IS THE INDUSTRY DOING ENOUGH?

When I look at the overall message from the industry to the consumer, it

doesn’t appear to have changed very much from what we might’ve seen a few years ago or five or ten? Are some of us still feeling like we’re just coming down from the pandemic boom? We thought things might “get back to normal” – hint: that’s not happening any time soon. The cost-of-living crisis, exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, is an entirely new and different phase. Over and above the switch from one “socio-economic phase” to another, we now have a very sharp and abrupt “right turn” in government policy which is compounding a lack of affordability for the lower income and middle-class consumer, whilst aiming to reward city bankers and the top 5%. Sure, some of our very best and most valued consumers are from this demographic and we might sell a few more eBikes and top-end road machines to them. But there are only so many £5k+ bicycles that the richest 660,000 people in the UK can purchase and store. N +1 has a ceiling, even if you do own three properties.

SUMMARY

In short: the economy, society and the pattern of consumer disposable incomes have changed radically and abruptly. The industry’s message does not appear to be matching consumer sentiment, and perhaps it needs to adapt?

The Federation of Small Business had estimated that up to 15% of their membership may not make it through the winter, owing to reduced consumer spending, increased energy costs and supply chain issues. My local health food shop, favourite pub and favourite restaurant have already served notice in the last six weeks owing to energy costs. All these factors also affect bicycle stores. I see no reason why our industry would be immune to these wider pressures within the economy. This in turn makes me anxious how many stores may not survive the winter.

So, whilst of course I recognise that for some stores, individually, their focus might be a specific bike or celebrating a particular demo day right now, that may only be the right strategy for them on a microeconomic basis and perhaps only for a short time. Taken at a macro-economic level, I worry that the industry is not doing enough to drive incremental sales with potential new consumers. This could be through marketing the absolute cost savings of cycling, affordability of repairs and availability of monthly payment schemes more widely.

Solving our consumers’ financial problems might be the best way to avoid falling victim to our own.

An example of how placing finance tools prominently online can get customers thinking about ways to pay

WOMEN’S CYCLING AND YOUR BIKE SHOP

Pragmatic, analytical, data and insights driven decision making is what keeps businesses making money, doing more than just keeping the lights on. In a mature market, this presents its own challenges. The return on investment gets smaller and smaller as we all chase the same set of well-established customers. In cycling ‘well-established’ almost exclusively means a combination of three segments: ‘White. Male. Older’.

What if I showed you data that highlighted a significantly under engaged cycling audience with massive growth potential, and added that engaging this group would also positively impact your existing customer base?

• Pre pandemic, a major bike brand saw global sales for this specific audience triple in 1 year*

• Online community engagement increased 600 per cent* Data, Hard facts. It’s the stuff businesses make strategic decisions based on, crafting forward-looking plans, directing longterm investment. Market and customer insights which make future investment a calculated plan, not a subjective, short

term, trend hoping, reactive, punt.

Want to know where this growth I talk of is going to come from?

Here’s Frank Aldorf’s take on the opportunity in front of us. “Women’s sport has the biggest potential for growth” and “It will be a better long-term investment than men’s.”

Frank has a CV that few would question. Over the past ten years he’s worked in Chief Brand and Marketing roles at Specialized, Canyon, and Internetstores, the world’s leading digital cycling retailer, and part of Signa Sports United (owners of WiggleCRC). For those muttering about online retail, remember that Signa plans to open bricks and mortar stores in North America and Europe.

In this article we’ll hear from other business leaders already charting this course, actively at work supporting and developing the growth of women’s cycling, and wider women’s representation, in sport, and in the workplace. These include Tomas Van Den Spiegel, CEO of Flanders Classics, Rachael Burnside, business and marketing director for Shift Active Media, and Mary Wittenberg, former president-commercial, EF Educa-

Women’s cycling offers businesses a substantial emerging market growth opportunity

tion First Pro Cycling, all working on global and local levels.

In conversations with these industry leaders, there is a common theme –instigators, early adopters, first movers; these businesses will benefit most from the opportunity.

PRACTICAL LOCAL LEVEL EXAMPLE

When competing with other local area bike shops, what happens when you are the only shop offering a women’s shop ride? What business impact does that have for you? Prologue Performance Cycling has, in the space of a month, seen a consistently 30 strong women’s ride going out every Friday.

At Bai Cycling they’ve built their brand, their shop, their entire business, around women’s cycling. The result is a loyal customer base who travel to be part of the experience, spending money with a business that clearly actively supports them and shares their passion.

That’s building customer loyalty, supporting, and engaging an audience that is under-served, or maybe even not being served at all. New business. New customers.

‘Instigators’; those with the vision to map out and drive change, for their own benefit, whilst also directly benefiting others. We’ll call this ‘noble business’ –futureproofing your organisation through a sustainable course of action which directly addresses a societal and marketsbased imbalance.

STILL NOT CONVINCED?

Another global sport, Formula 1, is making a very high visibility play for women fans. There’s a reason.

Steve Beckett, Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer at Zwift points out that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift gained more viewers than the French Formula 1 race, with Mary Wittenberg, former President-Commercial, EF Education First Pro Cycling, adding that “French TV, not even main channel, reports a 30% share & averaging 2.7 million viewers per stage…”

Now that’s an audience and a commercial opportunity. New customers with measurable value.

Another high-profile sport which has also seen its largest crowds this year come from women’s matches: Football. Of this now highly visible audience, Alexis Ohanian, Co-Founder of social media platform Reddit, and husband of Serena Williams, comments; “Absolutely a

cultural tipping point. Good. Just wait until folks see the brand marketing Dollars that women’s football will bring in over the next decade. Brand marketing exists to create a positive relationship with the purchaser and who drives the majority of consumer purchasing?”

We’d mentioned earlier that cycling is, currently, dominated by three demographics: white, male, and typically older. In its current form, that market is all but tapped out with limited growth potential. Disagree? As one example, just look at the World Tour and Mountain bike World Cup ridden bike brands that have struggled to gain a foothold in the UK market. Great product, struggling in a marketplace with not enough riders.

As Mary Wittenberg, former PresidentCommercial, EF Education First Pro Cycling asks, “Who do you want your future customers to be? What do we want those relationships to look like? How do we want to be known in your community?”

• Would you like to enable an everwider group of people to ride bikes?

• Would growing a younger customer base be attractive to your business?

• Are you looking for authentic ways to build deeper connections with the cycling community?

This brings us to our next common theme: Authentic, committed, strategic, planned, investment in building long standing relationships of mutual value.

INVESTMENT

It’s not a fad. True for money markets. True for building a connection. True for building loyalty. Sincerity means your audience knows you’re there for them, and not just to take the quick cash.

PRACTICAL EXAMPLE

When a bike shop introduces a new bike brand, customers can tell, based on the buy in – the number of models on the shop floor, and the amount of floor space the brand is given – if the business really believes in, and is long term committed to, the brand.

Your customers can tell your intent by your actions.

INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC INSIGHT

“When the dedicated women’s cycling Rouleur issue went on pre-sale on Feb 4th it became the fastest selling issue of the magazine’s 15-year history. It sold out, not once, but twice and has been reprinted for a third run to try to meet demand,” reported the Telegraph.

Progress for Women’s cycling?

Frank Aldorf

Mary Wittenberg

Tomas Van Den Spiegel

Rachel Burnside

In the UK

Carbon neutral

made in the UK

“More copies were sold online in one week than the previous best seller in six, and the return on investment is not only in the short term. The number of subscribers to Rouleur has tripled in the past year, but this issue has accelerated that growth – by halfway through February, there had already been 50% more sign-ups than the average month last year.”

A RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL SHIPS

“As with most sports media, Rouleur’s readership is heavily gender-skewed; around 8590% are men. With this issue, not only has the proportion of female subscribers more than tripled, but the quantity of male subscribers has also increased.”

“Whichever way you slice the data, the commercial value of a women’s-only cycling issue has been overwhelming.”

WHERE ARE MY FEMALE CUSTOMERS?

So, if you don’t currently have a significant female customer base, why do you think that is?

Taking a look at the present situation:

• What would happen if your business decreased its men’s bikes and clothing range to the same levels as your women’s?

• If your women’s range was 30% or 40% of your men’s range, what do you think would happen to your female customer base?

Rachael Burnside, business and marketing director for Shift Active Media – clients include, Rapha, Zwift, Continental, and a host of others – points out that no decision is made without an in-depth exploration of

data. Pre, during, and post campaign the data is what drives business decisions for the world’s biggest cycling brands.

• Have you explored external market data to support future investment decisions?

With women’s cycling, planned, sustainable, long term, investment-backed, vision is key. Rachael highlights that with established markets – men’s cycling –campaigns drive conversions in a sevenday window. With Women’s cycling focused campaigns – effectively an emerging market – campaign metrics are measured over one month, and have a three-pronged focus:

• Audience engagement

• Community building

• Conversions

This granular understanding of ‘what the road to success looks like’ is vital. Growth targets, just as with any financial investment, require commitment, consistency, and continuity of action, to deliver on stated goals.

LONG-TERM VISION

Tomas Van Den Spiegel, CEO of Flanders Classics makes the strong case for longterm vision and commitment to the bigger picture. As we talk, he’s clearly uncomfortable with my mention of his business actions being ‘noble’, and repeatedly reminds me that the course Flanders Classics has taken is based on pragmatic, commercially motivated, business decisions.

Making your organisation future proof means embracing and engaging with the change. Because standing still is, in effect, going backwards

Progress for Women’s cycling?

“WHEN THE WOMEN’S CYCLING ROULEUR ISSUE WENT ON PRE-SALE ON 4 FEB IT BECAME THE FASTEST SELLING ISSUE OF THE MAGAZINE’S 15-YEAR HISTORY.”

CHANGE MAKES GOOD COMMERCIAL SENSE

Tomas and the Flanders Classics team decided to change the running order of the races around, switching to men first, followed by women. This was based on an understanding that roadside crowds could go nowhere whilst racing was happening. This could be seen as admirable ‘business smarts’ at work.

The live broadcast now presents women’s racing as the main act, topping the bill, with deep roadside crowds of fans watching the premier women’s racer compete.

Star power inspires a new generation, and nothing says ‘wow’ quite like seeing Lotte Kopecky, Lizzie Deignan, Marianna Vos, and Elisa Longo Borghini going elbow to elbow racing over the same course as the men.

I should mention that in the world of Triathlon this – equal billing, the same event courses, the same media exposure, the same star status, the same prize money – is a long-given norm’.

HOW DO YOU STAND OUT IN A CROWDED, LEGACY DOMINATED, MARKET?

Tomas points out that society is already engaged in a high-speed evolution, whether we engage in it or not. Making your organisation future proof means embracing and engaging with the change. Because standing still is, in effect, going backwards.

In 2018 Flanders Classics set its next four-year plan for developing women’s cycling. As a leading race organiser, they addressed a key strategic decision. Do we:

• Target fast-track upgrade to World Tour status, elevating the standing of the races, and the status of the business, bringing with it a rapid short-term uplift in revenue, but at the expense of excluding non-World Tour teams from events they ran, reducing their support for wider women’s cycling.

• Maintain the long view, supporting the development of women’s cycling through wider accessibility to races for non-World Tour teams, building partnerships with sponsors who shared this ‘investment in growth’ vision, bringing with them more broadcast media exposure, growing audience engagement.

It’s in this timeframe that reports of massive disparities in prize money for women and men now racing the same events gained mainstream media coverage. At Strada Bianchi this resulted in a high-

profile crowdfunding campaign. At ParisRoubaix Trek stepped in to ensure Lizzie Deignan received equal prize money.

Tomas points out that had Flanders Classics immediately taken the fast-track World Tour / equal prize money route, without first securing live broadcasting of races, including social media streaming, then the audience engagement levels wouldn’t have grown. Without audience engagement there simply wouldn’t be a sustainable base from which to deliver the long-term goal of uplifting the entire women’s racing platform (not just Flanders Classics races), including more races, more media coverage, and equal prize money.

Any business has a commercial advantage when it’s invested in having a social impact, as well as driving its financial performance. The two work in tandem.

DO I HEAR YOU ASKING, “HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO RETAILERS?” OR WAS THE QUESTION, “HOW DO I UNLOCK THIS OPPORTUNITY?”

To both questions we give the same oneword answer: Community.

You’re doubtless familiar with the ‘tribe’ approach to growing a brand by now. The Rapha example is a great one. So too the brand loyal band who ride Yeti and Santa Cruz mountain bikes.

Your business has a story which attracts people who self-identify with it and want to be part of your tribe. Mountain bikers, roadies, gravel riders, CX racers, commuters. Product categories yes, but more importantly groups of people who identify with what your brand, or your business, shows people it’s about. For the business types reading this, Simon Sinek explains it best; “we want to do business with people who believe what we believe”.

So, your customer experience really matters. That requires us to think about the experiences we facilitate, rather than solely applying laser focus to a transactional interaction that only takes place when we sell products.

Edward Deason, a seasoned Customer Experience professional with a background in Food and Beverage, Travel, and Hospitality, now heads up Customer Experience for WiggleCRC. Chatting to Ed he points out that for people on a cruise ship holiday it’s not the boat that customers are focused on. It’s 100% essential to delivering the experience, but 100% not the primary focal point.

Building a community typically doesn’t happen when we focus exclusively on the transactional, feature-function,

Bai Cycling built a brand, their shop and their entire business around women’s cycling

“WOMEN’S SPORT HAS THE BIGGEST POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH. IT WILL BE A BETTER LONG-TERM INVESTMENT THAN MEN’S.”

TUBELESS SEALANT, RIMS AND COMPLETE WHEEL SETS - STANS’ HAS YOU COVERED

interactions we have with customers. If it does, then our attitude to retail hasn’t evolved beyond maintaining a well-kept stockroom-come-showroom which is open to the public. Not somewhere you visit to connect with your tribe or spend time in to feel part of the scene.

Rapha clubhouses work because they are a joy to spend time in. And it’s not just big budget Rapha doing this. Solid examples of independent businesses who use this approach to their commercial advantage: Giro Café in Esher, Prologue Cycles in Harrogate, Via-Atelier in Kings Cross, London, and STIFF in either Harrogate or Winterbourne. Phoenix Cycleworks on the outskirts of Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, is an absolute mecca for all kinds of mountain bikers, despite being in the flattest part of the country.

“What’s this got to do with women’s cycling?” I hear you ask.

EXPERIENTIAL RETAIL, FOOTFALL, DWELL TIME, AND FREQUENCY OF VISIT How do we attract and engage with our target audience outside of the need for essential services? How do we build a connection which isn’t driven by product sales? Think Lochlan Morten’s pioneering Alt Tour. Why just try generating sponsor value when everyone else is crowding into the camera shot? How about carving out your own media space, focused exclusively on you and your uniqueness?

How about being the only bike shop in the local area with a clear focus on women’s cycling?

If all we offer is a transactional experience, and the stock we hold shows we clearly don’t value the women’s cycling market, why would women cyclists form a customer relationship with our brand or business?

Investment: That’s how KPMG described sponsoring Flanders Classics.

Investment: Brought with it new races, more television coverage, and more prize money.

Investment: Carrying women’s specific stock, across the entire range, shows customers your intention.

Simply put, why host a women’s ride if your shop has little or nothing for these riders to buy from you post ride? The commercial return on your time, hosting the ride, has no outlet. A cost (time and staff cost) without a planned financial return.

As Frank Aldorf highlights, “The big winners will be those who invest as a brand (or business) in the entire ecosystem of women’s cycling. Those who make it an integral part of their business strategy. This is because they create a greater share of influence and exposure for themselves and have the opportunity to set a direction.”

Set your stall: Build that loyalty with your female customers who will know you took the early first step when no other local shop did more than make a very visibly token effort. Your fans will love you for it.

Set your direction: And do it very publicly. Be high visibility. Be active. Why? Frank puts it this way, “As a spectator brand you will not benefit much.”

NEXT STEPS FOR RETAILERS

At the start of this feature, Frank pointed out that “Women’s sport has the biggest potential for growth”, that “It will be a better long-term investment than men’s.” We also discovered that the most successful ever edition of Rouleur – a women’s edition – saw a major uplift in both women and men subscribers. With this in mind:

• What do you see when you review your existing customer and product sales data? Does it point toward, or outline, potential areas for future growth?

• Are you making budgeting and buying decisions which support the acquisition of new female customers?

• Where brands you currently stock are actively sponsoring, supporting, and promoting women’s cycling, what does this look like in your store?

• Do you use brand focused imagery featuring female riders in your store?

• For products you stock, and those you are considering introducing, are you asking brands and their reps about opportunities to promote women’s cycling? How does your store engage with these opportunities?

Whichever course of action you next take, remember, early actors see the biggest wins. Making your business futureproof requires embracing change in a strategic, planned, commercially advantageous, way. Whatever your decision, the question we’re all asking: Where are our new customers coming from?

JAPAN’S NEW BICYCLE TOURISM DIMENSION

I

magine there’s a train station with an aging shopping mall. Under the aegis of Atré – a subsidiary of state-owned East Japan Railway Company (JR East) –and Ibaraki Prefecture, it’s being turned completely upside down. In 2018, it opens under the name Playatré Tsuchiura with a focus on bicycles. Two years later, renowned resort and hotel operator Hoshino Resorts Inc. stepped into the project. Its latest resort concept, BEB, immediately occupies the top three floors of Playatré Tsuchiura what is now, by its own admission, “Japan’s largest bicycle facility”.

Before the first foreign tourists were allowed back into the country, two German expats living in Yokohama visited Tsuchiura’s latest bicycle hotspot in May of 2022. Jochem Kühnle and Tobias Talerek, together with the author, were the first foreigners to stay at the first “Cycle in, Cycle out” bicycle hotel in the Coronavirus-braked country.

Since the 7th of September the Japanese government has increased the daily limit for tourists entering the country from 20,000 to 50,000. They no longer have to take a PCR test. Nevertheless,

tourists still need a visa and must be a member of a group tour. Before Covid, only seven percent of foreigners entering the country came in on group tours.

There is no doubt that Japan experienced a tourist boom the government invested in and relied on. That was before the virus changed the world. Major events such as the Rugby World Championship 2019 and Olympics 2020 should attract more paying guests to the country. The ambitious plan was to reach a record-breaking 60 million foreign visitors per year until 2030. Corona put a huge spoke in the wheel.

IBARAKI’S INVESTMENT IN CYCLING TOURISM

Cycle tourism in the town of Tsuchiura in Ibaraki Prefecture, located just 70 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, is young by comparison.

The Playatré mall docked at the train station in the town, which is located on Lake Kasumigaura, plays a very special role in this. It is located very near the Tsukuba-Kasumigaura Ring Road, an approximately 180-kilometer marked bicycle circuit (which can be shortened to a 90- and a 140-kilometer loop).

Resort & hotel operator Hoshino has invested in a major bike facility that could prove a model worth paying attention to for operators worldwide. Jo Beckendorff goes long distance to find out more..

“SINCE THE 7TH OF SEPTEMBER THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HAS INCREASED THE DAILY LIMIT FOR TOURISTS ENTERING THE COUNTRY FROM 20,000 TO 50,000.”

Open since 2018, the Playatré is now Japan’s largest bicycle facility

Photo credits: Jo Beckendorff, Jochem Kühnle

&Tobias Talarek, Hoshino Resorts Inc.

Cyclists from the Tokyo metropolitan area can bring their bikes or rent directly from Playatré. For those bringing their own bikes, the train station offers a dedicated space with bike stands where they can assemble their bikes (for the rail transport in Japan, the front wheel has to be removed and a carrier cover put over it).

A rental station called Ring-Ring Square is located in the bicycle parking garage in the mall’s basement. It offers typical Japanese everyday bikes and pedelecs as well as cyclist-friendly facilities such as changing rooms and shower facilities. On the mall’s first floor is a, by Japanese standards, huge Le.Cyc outlet directed from Japanese bicycle chain store retailer Cycle Sport on site. It is selling and also renting out high-quality sporty bikes and pedelecs.

What the Playatré makers are particularly proud on is a blue line mark on all floors of the mall. This blue line allows cyclists to stroll through the mall with their beloved bicycle. Cafés, restaurants and stores in the building have set up bike racks in front of their entrances. That way, every biker can park their bike in plain sight and grab another bite to eat.

“CYCLE IN, CYCLE OUT” BIKE HOTEL BEB5 TSUCHIURA

Another Playatré highlight is the threestory Hoshino Resorts BEB5 Tsuchiura, opened in 2020. Hoshino’s first-ever “cycling scene hotel” offers a total of 90 rooms. Of those, 15 so-called “Cycling Rooms” are set up for true bicycle lovers. There is also a well-equipped workshop room with bicycle stands, tools, a table and a coffee machine. Here bikers meet and talk about the latest scene insides while checking their bikes. In general, the topic of bicycles is lovingly staged at all corners and ends.

“With BEB, Hoshino offers its fifth resort concept we are addressing a younger target group. Both rooms and lounge are geared toward fun. Our café is open around the clock. Food and drinks brought in or bought in the mall are no problem here. We also offer a late breakfast to the target group we have in mind. Late check-outs are also fine. You should feel comfortable here among your peers. In addition, BEB pricing turns out to be more affordable than at our other rather high-priced high-quality resorts,” explains Hoshino Resorts BEB5 Tsuchiura PR lady Fumi Arai.

More specifically, regular overnight rates (excluding tax and food) for a threebed room start at just JPY 12,000 (€84.70).

The above-mentioned “Cycling Rooms” for two people cost a complete JPY 15,600 (€110 euros) per night. Here the currently favorable exchange rate certainly helps. However, the average age of some “real” cycling guests is somewhat higher. While the 20- to 30-year-olds are more likely to want to spend a relaxed leisure weekend with smaller tours on the lake’s bike path on rental bikes, it is the 30- to 50-year-olds who often come with their own bikes, have already a few kilometers in their legs and tackle the 180-kilometer bike tour around the lake. Many of the cyclists on this route also enjoy stops at the specially designed bicycle rest stops with food stalls catering to cyclists.

But there are also those who want to pedal their legs out on this completely flat stage. However, this is the minority. Previous Playatré and BEB main clientele are recreational cyclists who don’t eat up miles, but rather enjoy the rural surroundings.

ADVANTAGE FARMLAND

Many Nippon visitors are drawn to Ibaraki Prefecture, which is dominated by agriculture, just at certain prime times. Insiders know exactly when golden-banded lily, Japanese blue vine, lotus flower, tulip, plum and cherry blossom. Likewise, they know when strawberries, honeydew and water melons, blueberries, tangerines, peaches and grapes are ripe and best for eating.

All of this grows around Lake Kasumigaura. In Ibaraki Prefecture, it is hoped to put tourists on bicycles or pedelecs for the last mile. The infrastructure built for this purpose has been refined in recent years and is in place.

Expats Jochem Kühnle and Tobias Talarek have chosen the 140-kilometer lake circuit. At lunchtime, they stop at an inn in the village of Aso. It comes highly recommended on this route. “Finally, some foreigners again!”, the innkeeper of Shiwomi Shokudo warmly welcomes the riders, “I can especially recommend our Curry Katsudon (that’s curry rice with pork chop). We have already been praised for this in a TV kitchen show. The quantity is just right for hungry cyclists. After all, you’ve got some kilometers ahead of you.”

MICRO-TOURISM

Back to Playatré: To date, Hoshino’s BEB5 Tsuchiura has been living off domestic guests averaging one night, according to general manager Oba Yuta: “In Corona times, micro-tourism became an issue. We think that will change in the post-

A popular loop spans 180 kilometres around the scenic Lake Kasumigaura

“CYCLISTS FROM THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA CAN BRING THEIR BIKES OR RENT DIRECTLY FROM PLAYATRÉ.”

Corona era, and people from the Tokyo metropolitan area will also stay the whole weekend with two overnights. We also hope to see the first cyclists from abroad. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to welcome them at all yet because of the Corona-related entry restrictions.”

What Yuta is particularly proud of is his Specialized-branded fleet of 12 high-quality e-hybrid, e-road racing and e-mountain bikes. These are joined by a few Benellibranded e-compact bikes for short trips. They are mainly chosen by families and non-cyclists staying at BEB5 Tsuchiura out of curiosity. Since 2005 the Italian motorcycle brand name Benelli is in the hands of Chinese two-wheel and motor producer Quianjing. Today they are also offering bicycles under this traditional name.

SIZING MATTERS

What Westerners should generally bear in mind when renting a bike in Japan, however: Frame sizes for cyclists over 1.85 meters tall are scarce. “We’ve already gotten used to it,” laughs Jochem Kühnle, who, like his colleague Tobias Talarek, measures a proud 1.93 meters. They brought their own road racing bikes.

While the e-road racing bikes from Hoshino only make sense on the flat stage

around the lake when a fierce headwind is blowing, e-mountain bikes makes perfect sense on the ride to nearby Mt. Tsubuka. Initially, you approach the mountains on a flat bike path that later turns into a trail along the banks of the Sakura River. Then, however, it goes first on a lonely pass road and then on great short and crisp steeply up and down trails through a forest. The humid and muggy climate certainly takes its toll. In addition, Jochem and Tobias have a hard time on their rental eMTBs, which are too small for them. Nonetheless, they have fun on their offroad ride in the somewhat cooler mountain world.

To get cycling newcomers a taste for bicycles, the BEB5-Tsuchiura team has even come up with something very special for local guests: with their “Morning Glow Cycling Tour”. They offer a bike tour just a few kilometers long to a good lake location for watching the sunrise: “This offer is very popular, especially among the less cycling-savvy.” The only downside: the tour starts at 3:45 in the morning – and takes a total of one and a half hours. Either you then lie down again and enjoy a later breakfast – or, after a great sunrise, you enjoy a good early breakfast.

HOSHINO RESORT FACT CHECK

Founded in 1904 as a forestry company today’s still family-owned Hoshino Resort Co, Ltd. claims to offer its guests “an unforgettable journey to places of unparalleled Japanese beauty”. In doing so, the Japanese rely on seven “Nippon Luxe” resort concepts.

“BEB” is the youngest drawing card in the Hoshino resort world. With this concept, the Japanese deliberately want to reach a younger target group showing them the way to nature.

While the very first BEB resort in Karuizawa is aimed primarily at hikers and birdwatchers, the BEB resort Tsuchiura presented here has specifically taken up the leisure alternative of cycling.

More info on the company that is traded on the stock exchange since 2013 is available on the website...

www.hoshinoresorts.com/en

Rooms are well equipped to host bikes

“HOSHINO’S

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE

As a market-leading electric bike components supplier, Bosch can be viewed as the bellwether for the market. With that in mind, CI.N once again sits down with Bosch eBike Systems CEO Claus Fleischer for an update on all things eBike…

With the cycling marketplace on a tilt toward transport, Bosch rounded out a near complete portfolio of motor options for manufacturers with a late summer limited edition, magnesium-bodied motor aimed squarely at the competitive electric mountain bike space. It was, according to CEO of Bosch eBike Systems Claus Fleischer one of the final pieces of the puzzle to cover all bases on the dominant consumerfacing side of its business.

“This is our super reactive, super sporty option that just gives raw performance out of the corners and over the obstacles. We have so many that just wish to enhance their training, improve their techniques and compete. The Performance CX line has been so successful, but the Performance Line CX Race Limit-

ed Edition delivers the best reactivity our engineers could manage, supporting the rider to 400% of the pedal input and increasing the ride dynamics.”

At 2.75 kilograms, the new drive unit is the lightest drive in the entire Bosch portfolio and comes with an 85Nm torque kick that offers apparently ‘explosive support’ at even over 120rpm; all of course within the legal frameworks that govern motors in Europe.

It is, of course, a fringe product but indicative of the broad church that electric biking has become over time. With professional electric bike racing now very much establishing itself, the marketplace has the same depth, arguably even more, than the pedal cycle market and a mass appeal to customers as yet unreached. For bike shops that’s great news.

Claus Fleischer I Bosch eBike Systems

“WE HAVE TRIED TO REDESIGN OUR ELECTRONICS TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO USE ALTERNATIVE COMPONENTS.”

Bosch eBike Systems boss Claus Fleischer is not shy of product testing

Demand is of course one thing, but supply quite another and notoriously there have been stubborn gaps in the electric bike market that persists even as much of the rest of the marketplace has more than caught up. Uniquely placed in its size and thus industry demand, Bosch has been at the coal face of battling against other electronics giants to secure key component supply, not to mention being acutely aware of other raw material issues, new and potential conflicts and numerous other complications that have wreaked havoc on everything from price to delivery timetables.

Claus says of the current geo-political climate: “Unpredictable events have been so commonplace, we’ve had yet more Covid lockdowns in China and logistics issues where the ports have been affected. In an attempt to hedge against electronics shortages, we have tried to redesign our electronics to make it possible to use alternative components. This will continue into next year so our exposure is lowered. Most forecast a cooling of the economy into next year. This should reduce demand and we can therefore better improve the supply. When it comes to Taiwan, the situation is not so much about bicycle industry, but if a political conflict escalates. Of course, any trouble connecting with the semiconductor industry will bring an effect on bicycle industry. All this considered, we are now seeing investment into the USA and Europe in such components and as is generally the trend the bike industry will nearshore its production to get a better handle on supply.”

Clearly impressed by the progress in Portugal, where foreign and local investment has swelled to deliver a cluster of manufacturing firms in one locality,

Claus suspects further joint ventures to establish in Europe ready for the what he perceives to be a promising longer-view outlook for the eBike market.

One way or another, the market will seek to get a hold on pricing in order to keep true the notion that cycling does well out of a downturn as a result of its low cost. That is of course a tricky task when the world’s markets are largely pointed to an inflationary recession, potentially a long one. So, given that electric bikes are inherently more expensive than pedal cycles, what’s Claus’s take on how his customers will face this challenge?

“I think we are now seeing two effects in play. Number one, in Europe past six to eight years there has existed a high willingness to pay more torque and watt hour energy. So, a willingness to pay for more range has been driven from consumer demand into the development stronger motors and bigger batteries. That’s increased every year. However, it looks like dealers and consumers have come to a natural limit, where within the framework of a 25km/h EPAC and the available installation space the metrics cannot go further. So, with that we have a natural limit and it now begins a reversal toward less weight and less cost, which will also means less Nm and Wh. We see this demand for lower price points developing fast now with clients,” he explains.

While price might be the consumer’s new priority, what’s the Bosch view on other important progress being made to deliver the long-term vision where eBikes take over the streets? In a word, safety.

On the technology front, that’s multipronged and began with the recent second-generation ABS system, as collaborated on with Magura. “Safety is at heart of what we do as it makes eBikers cycle more. Research seems to show that they’ll cycle up to three times more and for longer and technology makes these trips both easier and safer.”

That’s the hardware side, but being Bosch the thought train doesn’t stop there. Claus is optimistic about technologies that make all transportation intelligent and able to communicate, in particular innovations that see vehicles like cars finally recognise and adapt to pedestrians and cyclists. “Our solutions will be the change, we have been attending conferences to make sure we are part of this technological progress,” he says, adding “of course it’s important that we continue to care too about infrastructure that promotes safety.”

“NOW BEGINS A REVERSAL TOWARD LESS WEIGHT AND LESS COST, WHICH WILL ALSO MEANS LESS NM AND WH.”

Claus Fleischer I Bosch eBike Systems

New to market The Performance Line CX Race is the competition ready option

The Bosch Nyon display packs a lot into a small package to keep riders informed

Claus remains upbeat about the long-term view for eBikes once volatility subsides

With its magnesium sheel the new Performance Line CX Race weighs just 2.75kg

We’re told, while on the subject of innovations on the software side that by the time this issue is printed Bosch will have made an announcement on a new navigation technology.

With technological progress new doors open and so with such great focus suddenly on the fleet marketplace, we wonder when will Bosch really step up its B2B offerings?

Claus says it’s coming: “We launched during Eurobike bike the Connect module alarm function and GPS for fleet operators. Mainly we have focused on consumer market and private personal use and not so much on professional and commercial. We will expand our B2B offerings in future with connectivity solutions developing, there are notably more requests from the industry for Bosch to be involved.”

Still very much in a state of constant evolution, the product and the limits of design are being challenged frequently and ever-more from those from outside of the bike world. It’s not always entirely welcome when the limits of legislation are tested, so we ask the Bosch eBike Systems CEO’s take on recent clampdowns on those sending to market product that sits outside of standard electric bike regulation. As was the case last time we interviewed the Bosch eBike Systems boss, his viewpoint has remained robust; protect the status of an eBike as a bicycle at all costs.

“It is very important that EU commission and UK all have the same common understanding that EPACs will cut off of 25kmh and remain categorised as a bicycle. This is super important because the bicycle as means of transportation gives so much freedom to operate and expands a person’s horizons of where they can ride and even

out in nature it’s expansive for people. This freedom is so important and it brings high acceptance for cycling. We must not in any way reduce the consumer fascination and perception of an eBike, so we clearly draw this line in the sand to preserve the market. Anything above and beyond goes for type approval, but this is a separate discussion.”

Where they may be some willingness in discussion is around the weight limits on cargo bikes, where at present 250kg is a ceiling. For loads up to this marker Claus says that use of bicycle components works just fine, but where those boundaries are being tested (and they frequently are) heavier duty components are required, along with a more built-up chassis. Here is where new type approval discussions may be useful, says Claus.

The other big conversation that the bike industry is increasingly engaged with is sustainability and the electric bike’s role in challenging for a share of reduced car trips, whether using a combustion engine or the supposedly clean electric car. Claus is keen to put into context the environmental differences.

“If we compare the CO2 footprint of a bike, eBike and car of any engine type, then the CO2 lifecycle of the bicycle and eBike are at least close together. The combustion engine and battery electric car are by a factor of 100 to 200 worse for the planet. The difference between a bike and eBike is comparably so small. Generally speaking, if you use an eBike for 450km instead of the car you have compensated for the CO2 emissions of the car’s production,” says Claus.

In recent years the batteries put to use in electric bike products have steadily reduced down the levels of precious materials, with cobalt usage down 65% over the years when comparing earlier batteries to the products Bosch now offers.

He concludes: “We try to reduce the weight of bikes, but also in doing so the material usage. As a company we now look very much at whole lifespan of components, from raw material, through shipment, usage and then end of life. Aside to this, we have a specific programme for efficient and low-waste logistics, which is constantly reducing plastics and creating more eco-friendly packaging. We have a project team set up working directly with our engineers that design sustainability in to product before, not after launch. That’s a process that’s continual and changing the way the entire industry produces products.”

www.Bosch-ebike.com

Claus Fleischer I Bosch eBike Systems

“IT IS IMPORTANT THAT EU COMMISSION AND UK HAVE THE SAME UNDERSTANDING THAT EPACS WILL CUT OFF OF 25KMH AND REMAIN CATEGORISED AS A BICYCLE.”

ALL IN ONE

The Abus ‘One Key’ system is one of those ideas that lends itself spectacularly well to the bike shop sale and even more so if you’re lucky enough to be selling electric bikes in droves.

We are creatures of convenience and paired to that, what can be more frustrating than losing your keys? We’ve all done it, scrambled through drawers trying to locate the right key for a lock and while life has steadily become simpler in the digital age in many respects, there remains the need to carry keys for everything from home security, right through to various keys for your customer’s bike fleet. Or is there?

Abus are the only bike brand on the market currently touting a ‘One Key’ service, available as an in store add on and one that just makes sense for a natural conversation from shop floor staff to bike buying customer.

For the uninitiated, the One Key offering is a bespoke solution that enables the customer to dictate a bespoke key for all compatible lock cylinders that they own from Abus, bar a few lines such as the Bluetooth systems now on the market.

UK explains why…

Brand manager to Abus and Pirelli, Ed Denwood explains: “What stores carrying electric bikes may not already know is that the electric bikes on their shop floor more than likely already carry Abus security at OEM level and so with any electric bike sale comes the opportunity to sync the One Key solution to the sold eBike.”

Denwood is referring to the fact that the lock on eBike battery covers on countless leading brands are manufactured by Abus at an OEM level and for what the brand believes is over 80% of the eBikes sold in the EU. When customers are spending big on an eBike, the conversation around add on sales of security products immediately become more viable; you don’t spend thousands of pounds and gamble on security thereafter.

“It’s pertinent to the independent dealer that with the electric bike category enjoying success and with a generally older more discerning

customer feeding in more, there exists an enhanced add on sale space that can incrementally add revenue and customer loyalty with something bespoke like ‘One Key’. It’s an easy lead in for security sales and one that can be framed positively as addressing asset protection out and about of home. Customers may not need as much persuasion,” explains Ed.

The cost to the consumer is not so drastic that they may have second thoughts, especially on account of the no brainer convenience on offer. There is just a 10% surcharge to begin the process of customising the cylinders and the turnaround can be just three to four weeks. All bespoke cylinders are made by hand in Germany with a high level of quality control built into the process. It is, for the bike shop, a relatable sale upon pointing out the annoyance of carrying and remembering where you put all the keys currently owned.

Ed Denwood, Abus brand manager at Extra

“Because Abus has a much wider home security market presence the brand has a big deterrent to thieves, they know us like a household name, which in itself means they quickly turn to softer targets. The XPlus system, which is the focal point of the One Key campaign is one of most secure against lockpicking. The internals have a high number of cylinders and require full key insertion to unlock. The cylinders are unlocked one by one, so as you go in with a pick you are only partially unlocking. With the XPlus you simply cannot pick the cylinder until all points are engaged at once,” explains Ed.

Though locks compatible with the custom cylinder programme begin at just £45, the product enhancement is generally well-matched to higher ticket items, which given this is an IBD exclusive service, is a big perk for stockists. The option to customise around convenience is vast too and appears on battery locks, frame locks, D locks, chains, folding security devices and alarmed locks too. For the eBike customer we are told the folding Bordo locks have been best-sellers on account of your typical pedal assist user being less concerned about carrying weight on the bike and liking the bracket option.

The lock’s brackets are no afterthought either, for Abus it’s an integral part of the product and tested as such. The internal test, says Ed, sees many brands last only minutes, while Abus brackets go for 200, even 300 hours, sometimes until the test machine gets turned off. Crucially we’re told they won’t jump up out of bracket or worse break it when the path underfoot gets rugged.

So, what’s with the Abus number rating affixed to each package, often parallel to the Sold Secure moniker?

Ed explains that Abus are never content with standard Industry testing and always prefer to go a step further, over and above the recognised standards. “Whilst Sold Secure testing provides a solid and respected benchmark for the industry, it is typically conducted via manual tests, rather than with a calibrated machine in controlled conditions. Therefore, tests might be less repeatable, it’s just not the same as machine applying the same test to every lock.

“Abus has its own test lab where they perform specific leverage and pull tests, freeze tests, sawing and more, in fact they pass more European tests than any other brand. Some lock brands pass Sold Secure, but perhaps not others. Swedish tests, for example, are subjected to extreme cold conditions that are lesser tested, so in those conditions things are easier to break. Abus too are very strict on corrosion testing, which can make a locking mechanism inoperable. In short, they are their own biggest critic and they prefer to go beyond the benchmarks of Europe.”

On that note, Abus has another lesser known but nonetheless pertinent point to make on a safety standard that is not front of mind; chemical content.

“On some lock brand’s packaging you’ll see the label has carcinogenic chemicals warnings, which EU directives ensure are expressly mentioned. Abus is using none of these and in fact it costs Abus 30 cents per lock to make sure 100% of its products contain no carcinogenic products that typically creep into the process during metal treatment and processing.

A significant perk to Abus is the brand’s complete control of its entire product cycle and this is again part of the reason why ‘One Key’ is able to form part of the service ecosystem. Abus is its own designer, manufacturer, tester and plenty more, something that Ed says is a rarity in the security world. With production of its security gods based in Germany and the helmets gradually shifting to an Italian factory there is a form of security in the firm’s supply in not being at the mercy of shipping from Asia for all but a minority of products.

Ed says that all of this combined should give shops confidence that Abus not only has its supply chain and quality control among the top tier brands in the industry, but has a product that is inherently well-matched to boosting revenue per bike sale with the sale of a unique service.

“If you go to Starbucks then 100% of the time they will offer you a muffin; what Abus offers with the ‘One Key’ service is that added value service that makes life so much easier. Where a family is buying several bikes it’s common sense to have one key, while eBike sales are a no brainer to tack this on given the Abus battery cover lock connection. We are removing all the reasons not to and a single key is a big life hack win for consumer, they don’t want five keys,” concludes Ed.

Finally, it is worth noting that for the bike shop with demo or hire fleet management as part of the business, the ‘One Key’ system is an excellent means to ensure staff are never short for finding the right key to unlock fleets. What’s not to like?

www.abus.com

The One Key solution is compatible with a broad range of Abus locks at £45 and upwards

“ALL BESPOKE CYLINDERS ARE MADE BY HAND IN GERMANY WITH A HIGH LEVEL OF QUALITY CONTROL BUILT INTO THE PROCESS.”

SALES + REVENUE FOCUSED BUSINESS

If reading this article doesn't leave you wanting to have a serious conversation with your existing marketing partner, then I, Mark Downie, co-founder of Advntr Media Group have not done my job.

We at Advntr Media Group are a sales and revenue focused business. Possibly not what you expect to hear from ‘marketers’. I’m here to challenge that view, and to help you make more money for your business.

To achieve this, I’ll start by telling you to pause your current marketing activities. I’m asking you to gather information from which we’ll create your future sales and marketing strategies - making you more money than you spend on them. (If you currently spend little, or nothing, on marketing we can help you here, avoiding costly future mistakes).

We’ll do this by asking simple questions around key aspects of your current customer, sales and product insights, assessing these to establish if you are ‘marketing with purpose’.

Let’s start with some easy ones. We want to focus attention on analysis, measurement, and action, rather than telling you to jump on Instagram, or spend money and time needlessly.

1. Are you marketing what your customer wants to buy?

2. Are you analysing conversions and building on that information to create sales and marketing strategies?

These are fundamental and uncomfortable questions to ask. We suggest that unless you are pretty clear on the answers, or don’t want to answer them then you should stop spending on marketing right now. Additionally, it’s vitally important to ensure you and your team understand the journey you’re on. Do they know the numbers and are they clear on their goals? Take a moment to stop and ask if everyone understands what the mission is at an annual, monthly, weekly and daily level. Are you having regular, effective, team meetings and listening to what’s coming back from the shop floor or ecomm teams? If you aren’t doing so already, make time for fast ‘stand up’ meetings in the morning . Ask each team member for four pieces of information:

• One thing they achieved the previous day

• One thing they will achieve today

• One thing they need help with (follow up with the resources they need within the hour)

• One problem did they had the day before (note these down)

YOU HAVING REGULAR, EFFECTIVE, TEAM MEETINGS AND LISTENING TO WHAT’S COMING BACK FROM THE SHOP FLOOR OR ECOMM TEAMS?”

By doing this you’ll help build accountability, team-work and an environment where problems are aired and you get to hear valuable information.

But back to the original premise. At a simplified level marketing is sales, and sales is marketing; they share the same goal. Marketing and sales activity still find truth in the classic 4 P’s - are you selling the right product, at the right price, in the right place and promoted well? Take a moment to consider these. (Yes, they’re cliched. Yes, they really work). Really look at each one and ask, ‘are we getting these right?’. If we spend some time playing with this mix, marketing will start to take care of itself. What brands are you offering - are the products they make still relevant to your customers. When we say ‘customer’ we mean one type in particular, the customers you need to develop your business profitably.

• Are there products you stock but really shouldn’t?

• Are you being supported by the brands who you represent?

• How often are they visiting to train the team for instance?

• Are they helping you solve problems or creating them for you?

One way to start assessing the mix you offer is to run regular inventory reports. Keep it simple.

• Look at the 20% of products that deliver 80% of your revenue

• Compare this to the top 20% that contribute 80% of your profit

• Do this on a £ basis, not just %.

Look for commonalities and then look to see if you keep adequate numbers in stock. If you know you are out of stock of these on a regular basis, work with the team on how many more of these can be sold to establish a new baseline of what you need to carry. It also helps to make people aware that selling items like £40 helmets is actually great for business – the ‘basic’ products can often be overlooked in a store in favour of the fancier stuff. The £999 hybrid can also be a shining star, even though it’s grey and simple looking. Running this basic type of report will also show you the slow lines that contribute nothing or very little to the business. Be brave with these and make a plan of what to do about them. Firstly, make sure you don’t repeat these mistakes and secondly set about solving the issue by moving them through. They are eating your liquidity and preventing you from growing.

Spend time asking customers who don’t find what they are looking for more about what they came in for in greater detail. Ask what’s wrong. Don’t be shy – you need to know what isn’t hitting the mark.

It’s easy to overlook that humans look for solutions first and foremost. They have a problem or desired outcome and need a product and/or service to provide that. If we look at it through the lens of our industry, we can focus on the customer's needs first and specifically your customer. Are you selling the products that people in your area want to buy or are you selling what you feel comfortable selling? If it’s the former, great. Keep doing it, refine and distil the processes you use. If not, maybe there are changes you can make to better serve the needs of the community around you and grow your business. Change your mindset, stop selling ‘bikes and accessories’ and start selling ‘urban mobility and lifestyle change’. Sell experiences and good times.

At a practical level, create natural flows in store. This might seem like going back to basics, but make sure you haven’t lost sight of how a sale can be conducted step by step; walking people through the things they need now and later.

Establish lists in the back shop of everything a team member should be offering the customer. Place them logically around the store and give things space to breathe. When presented with the new, people struggle to make decisions and are easily overwhelmed. Make it easier to buy for them and ask your customers what they think of certain areas of the store and if you are guilty of leaving stock on the floor,

brown boxes in sight and not hoovering everyday then you need to change that.

Assess your workshop booking in and service writing procedures and satisfy yourself they are good by test shopping your own store. Get a friend in to book a repair and report back. Are the team giving accurate prices to customers and adding the correct products to the job to minimise surprises and friction later on?

Again, these may sound basic but that’s the whole point. Getting the recipe right and coming back to test, analyse, repeat as a method of working allows you to know what to do next to bring more people in and, crucially, convert more with the people already coming in. Make things repeatable and predictable to minimise the variables and then you can be confident in the marketing of what you offer.

Which leads on to what we call ‘Marketing With Purpose’ – engaging with marketing activities where sales conversion is the goal. The purpose is the sale and therefore the marketing should be identifiable actions leading to that sale. For this to work we need to understand the endpoint fully and know that the sales execution, whether it be in store or online, is repeatable and measurable. It’s about not hoping for the best and it’s about not embedding mistakes.

It’s a process-based approach that relies on that original honest questioning we mentioned before.

Are you trying to push Ultegra equipped road bikes when you keep seeing grownups running kids around in cargo eBikes? Are you trying to sell enduro bikes when people seem to be asking for

“DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK EVERY CUSTOMER FACE TO FACE WHAT BROUGHT THEM TO YOU AND WHAT THEY ENJOYED ABOUT THE VISIT.”

hybrids? Do you have the world's finest waterproof jackets when local office workers just want a hi-viz item for the 20minute commute? Look at what sells from your stock vs what you have on display. What are you always ordering at the last minute to satisfy customers? Are you left with outlier clothing sizes every season? Stop and ask yourself this ‘are we selling what people want to buy, or what we want to sell’. If you work to align what you have with what people want, that is the most powerful form of marketing.

Once you have satisfied yourself with the answer then you need to own that answer then build out your strategy.

Again, looking at it from the end point –assess if you have the right people doing the right things in your team – and then evaluate if some training is required. Are your staff equipped to deal with customers who may have more knowledge than them; customers’ who’ve spent four weeks convincing themselves at home about a particular product? At the same time, how are you dealing with new entrants and those who care nothing for specs and just want that solution we mentioned? Are you approaching people who walk in correctly, if at all? Make time to assess these fundamentals, it’s vital and will only help inform your next steps.

With soul searched, the next step is to identify and crystallise the easy stuff. There are things you are doing, either knowingly, or not, that attract people to your business, and who buy from you.

Figure them out and acknowledge them formally as good practice and ensure the team identifies them as such. The trick is to do more of the good things by adding

weight and emphasis by recognition of them. If it’s something as straightforward as having an area in the store for kids to hang about while adults are shopping, then do more with that. Update the toys or books, add more tactile objects to keep the kid’s attention – if you do that then you get the grown-ups attention. The point is, don’t overlook the simple and inexpensive things. Don’t be afraid to ask every customer face to face what brought them to you and what they enjoyed about the visit to get the feedback to build out these personal good practices.

By refining and optimising everything you do, you’ll then create simple and easily communicable messages in your marketing – it will be purposeful.

If you’ve arrived at this point in the article, and find yourself asking, “when do I turn my marketing efforts back on, and how do I use all this new insight you’ve generated?” – that’s where we come into our own.

ADVNTR Media Group utilise the information you’ve captured. It’s critical to your marketing efforts.

Nobody invests in a business without thoroughly researching the investment. We just did the research. Now we can invest time, effort, resource, and capital, to develop, deploy and measure value on future marketing campaigns for your business.

And remember, I started by saying that marketing activities should cost you less than they make you. We want to grow your business, win you new customers, ensure your staff are prepared for the new foot traffic our campaigns generate.

www.advntr-media.com

THE

Patagonia made international news recently when its owner – Yvon Chouinard – announced he was giving up his share in the more than $1.5 billion Dollar outdoor clothing business which he founded in the 1970s. In September he gave all the stock in the company to a trust and a non-profit organisation – Holdfast Collective, which is dedicated to fighting environmental crises and defending nature.

When the news broke it naturally cause quite a stir prompting questions about big business, genuine sustainability versus greenwashing and throwing the focus onto outdoor pursuits in particular.

However, anyone with more than a passing interest in climate change and green issues would have been aware that Chouinard has always been an environmentalist and always led Patagonia to be a sustainable operation. And as such Patagonia was one of the first large corporate businesses to gain B Corp certification from B Lab – an internationally recognised classification of a commercial operation’s sustainability practices.

So, why should the cycle trade care about Patagonia becoming a part of a non-profit climate protection foundation or for that matter consider B Corp certification and compliance with internationally recognised standards for sustainability?

Well, isn’t cycling by its very nature ‘green’ transport? Not only that but if you take into account the whole principle of sustainability you begin to understand that cycling has much more to offer toward living sustainably. Yes, moving away from using fossil fuels by cycling more and driving less is one aspect of sustainability but to fully encompass it

includes considering people’s health and well-being, as well as climate change.

So just how sustainable is the cycle industry? Well on the face of it I’m sure most people would argue that it is well on the way given that cycling is clean transport and how exercise, such as cycling, can be beneficial to mental health, but then again how carbon intensive is the manufacture of bicycle and carbon fibre components in particular? What about the working conditions for staff in far eastern factories where much of that manufacturing takes place? Closer to home how much equality is there in the average bike shop? How sustainable it is to bring out new model ranges and products every year that makes previous stock obsolete?

We all know it needn’t be this way and while we can’t all be like Yvon Chouinard there is a change happening within our industry. While B Corp may not be widely known in the cycle trade the first bike brand to gain B Corp certification certainly is – Chris King Components.

It should be no surprise that Chris King chose to gain certifiable accreditation for its sustainable practices. The company is well-known for its lifetime warranties on its products – backing the idea that cycling should not be a part of the disposable ‘wear-it-out and throw-it-away’ culture. However, for Chris King sustainability goes much further than making parts that last and not making its products obsolete every year simply by introducing new designs, nor would that be enough to get certified by B Lab. Getting that certification includes employing ethical principles such as local manufacturing, recycling wherever possible, paying a living wage and gender equality among employees.

Closer to home bike, clothing and outdoor gear manufacturer Alpkit lays claim to being the only bicycle maker to have gained B Corp certification. While the actual accreditation from B Lab might be relatively recent for Alpkit it is just one more step on the road to sustainability that has been happing since the company was founded. Managing director David Hanney explains: “The cycle industry has a head start on environmental issues; bike use helps to offset the use of fossil fuels. There is something inherently positive about bikes and being sustainable has always been deep within the company. When we started in 2004 we wrote on our website that ‘we care about what we do’ and alongside that, we pay fair wages and try and do things that little bit better.

“With B Corp certification it’s not just about the environmental impact of the products we make. It’s far broader and covers things like how we do business and giving back. Sustainability is a very wide subject.

“From an environmental point of view a lot of what we are looking for is choosing low-impact materials; looking at the decarbonisation of Alpkit; we looking to move away from fossil fuels and modes of transport that use fossil fuels; making products that are long-lasting and repairable and ultimately recyclable.

“In terms of ethics, it’s effectively wanting to be a good business and we look after our staff. We became a living wage foundation employer a couple of years ago. Which means we pay a minimum of £9.90 per hour and that’s going

to be going up to £10.90,” says Hanney.

While Chris King and Alpkit are two examples of bike industry businesses with a focus on the hardware side of the market, the cycle clothing sector is potentially even less liable to be seen as sustainable simply because it has always been so seasonal and cyclical, while not as much as fashion labels it is still an issue. However, some operations are looking to change that perception and one example is Isadore, the clothing brand founded by brothers and former pro road racers Martin and Peter Velits.

“We perceive sustainability as an absolute necessity in the current environmental crisis and moreover, as a long-term business approach that requires close attention to current operations along ecological, social, and economic environments,” says Boris Stefanik, Head of Brand at Isadore.

“Since the initial founding of Isadore, we have tried to optimise our operations along these lines, to establish that sustainability is an essential value for our business. Hence, the choice of our production location and supply chain has been strategic to follow this set value.”

This is one of the key points of a truly sustainable business, working locally, be that with suppliers or supporting the local community by making it easy for people to access jobs that pay a living wage and which if they can cycle to. Obviously, it is not always the case that for certain processes and products can be produced in this way and this is a point that is acknowledged by Hanney: “If I know the overseas factory treats its

Known to make built to last goods

Chris King is also a significant recycler of materials, among other efforts to reduce its impact

employees then I am happy to work with them. An example of this is the factory we use for our titanium frames. It has a really skilled workforce.”

However, when possible and to be classed as a sustainable product, making it as near to the source as possible is always preferable as Stefanik explains: “We strive to place our production in Europe, closer to our customers, and thus, decreasing the CO2 emissions throughout the delivery stage.

“Hence, we place a lot of importance on tracking where our materials originate and being totally open about what we know and what we haven’t uncovered. We believe that the location where we produce and the supply chain has gotten more attention in recent year because customers care more about the whole production process, and subsequently, Isadore offers complete transparency in the understanding of our supply chain

“From the initial operations, we knew we wanted to work with our hometown Makyta Factory in Puchov. As our business grew, so did our production sites. Currently, Isadore’s production is equally spread between Slovakia, Portugal, and Lithuania.” Stefanik says that those locations were chosen “because we care about good working environment for textile workers. We know the workers there get the European living wage, work in good conditions, and take pride in their craftsmanship.”

It is clear then that for a business to make the move towards being sustainable it needs to be consciously aware of where its materials and supplies are sourced from and that the workforce at each step along the production process is fairly dealt with. So, what else can and should be done to claim sustainability?

Recycling and the use of recycled materials have always been strong points in the Chris King journey to sustainability and it’s a theme that’s common to both Isadore and Alpkit, too. “Whether it be steel, aluminium or titanium you have a material that is very intensive to produce, but once you have got it you have something that can last

ANALYSIS

Circular economy and sustainability

Lifetime warranties have been a solid way for Chris King to demonstrate product confidence and build a reputation for quality

for years and that helps offset the energy use that created it. That’s why products should be designed and built to last and be easily repairable. And at the end of a bike’s usable life much of the material can be recycled,” notes Hanney.

He continues: “However, I’ve recently been trying to find a way of getting recycled titanium and carbon fibre. Recycled steel is not a problem. When I asked Reynolds what the recycled content is in 531 tubes I was told it’s 100%. If the industry works together we can get titanium and carbon fibre back to be recycled and close the loop in the production cycle.”

While recycling metals is a fairly obvious move and becoming more common, it’s less obvious how recycled materials can be incorporated into a high-end clothing range such as that offered by Isadore, who say “Sustainability is a key driver for innovation. For instance, our Alternative line carries an underlying message of the line being sentenced to disappearance. We named it Alternative because we want to portray that well-chosen recycled material can work equally well as non-recycled material, hence, we are replacing virgin plastics with this recycled material in other collections as well. Our goal is to replace all virgin plastic by 2025. Alternative will be the new ordinary.”

As an example of just how far the Slovakian clothing brand has taken the idea of recycling Stefanik explains how the use of recycled yarns depicts the company’s main initiative to sustainability. “By converting PET into recycled polyester the production requires less water and energy than it would to produce virgin polyester. Since there isn’t always enough material available from used PET, our fabric is

made from rPET, which is GRS-certified polyester, recovering and transformed material that was once a PET bottle, with no new plastic added. Hence, decreased levels of CO2 emissions are being produced and the use of non-renewable resources is not essential. By using rPET, we avoid creating more virgin plastics and prevent existing plastic bottles from ending up in oceans.”

All of this shows that even small steps can help on the road to sustainability, but what use is it if you can’t easily demonstrate the steps you’ve taken? It was a desire to be transparent about how the business operates in as sustainable a way as possible that led Hanney to invest in becoming a B Corp accredited business.

“What I really like about it [B Corp] is that it gives you a framework you can run to and how a bike that can be good for your mental health can offset the carbon used in its manufacture in a factory in China. We can use it as a handrail as to how do we prioritise conflicts and how do we resolve them and it can help with where you should look and where should you start to be sustainable.

“Sometimes it can be hard, when you are in a warehouse in Nottinghamshire, you can feel quite alone and wonder what do we do? Adopting the [B Corp] framework has been very enabling; the more we work with it and the more we understand it the more respect I have for it.

“The first time we applied it, I struggled to understand some of the questions but once you have run through the framework you begin to understand the gist of it and realise it’s a well-thought-through programme. I like it because it’s free to do the assessment. You can then choose

Recycled yarns and supporting local partners have formed a large part of Isadore’s strategy to lower impact

“BY USING RPET, WE AVOID CREATING MORE VIRGIN PLASTICS AND PREVENT EXISTING PLASTIC BOTTLES FROM ENDING UP IN OCEANS.”

DAVID HANNEY > ALPKIT MANAGING

whether you want to certify or not.”

While Isadore is not yet a certified B Corp it is a programme that the management team is aware of with Stefanik noting that “it’s a great way of inspiring a business to grow sustainably taking into consideration profit and purpose.

“Additionally, it gives businesses credibility and the ability to compare different corporations as often commitment to sustainability is ambiguous and unprecise. We are currently in the stage of identifying possible internal ways of becoming more sustainable through understanding the life cycle analysis of our products. However, looking forward, we would be interested in applying for the B Corp certification as our business could receive higher credibility, transparency, and we constantly strive for a sustainable business approach.”

As and when Isadore makes the move it will pay dividends. Hanney says that since Alpkit became B Corp certified the consumer response has been incredibly positive. “We’ve been on this path for a long time and there was a little bit where we thought ‘we’ve been doing this for a long time and customers didn’t realise we were using recycled materials, or that we do our own repairs’. But we’ve been surprised by the customer reaction and how engagement with B Corp has become far more prevalent.”

Chris King, Alpkit and Isadore may not operate at the same scale as Patagonia but is that a good thing or a bad thing for companies that want to change business practices to become

more sustainable?

Stefanik notes that the transformations towards sustainable operations require a lot of effort but that for smaller businesses “the key benefits lay in flexibility and un-fixed format of internal operations. If a small business decides to change a part of its production, it should be relatively easy as they are not producing in such large amounts as larger corporations are.

“On the other hand, larger corporations have the finance, time, and scale to implement sustainable values. It is much easier for them to get the knowhow about sustainability through internal or external sources as they do not have to struggle with the basic operations of the day-to-day business.”

The same arguments are put forward by Hanney: “I think we have both got our roles in the process of change. Patagonia is huge and it can make change happen, but we don’t have a lot of leverage with a particular factory in the way that Patagonia does. However, we are far more agile, have far more attention to detail and can move a lot faster.

“Because we are small, we can easily move to a renewable electricity supplier, whereas if Patagonia wanted to do that it would have so many considerations to deal with.”

His final piece of advice for anyone, anywhere in the bicycle industry who wants to begin the transition to becoming a sustainable business is to “just concentrate on the small issues every day”.

www.bcorporation.uk

PROFILE SPOKESAFE ACTIVE TRAVEL AS A SERVICE

Did I just hear the term ‘coworking for cycle parking?’ It seems so, as I stand with the founder of Spokesafe, Max Wilson, underneath a busy London Bridge railway line in a concrete lined space filled with empty near-vertical bike racks and Sheffield stands.

Founded in March 2019, Spokesafe started repurposing car parking space in central London and turning it over to secure cycle parking, leased to businesses for staff use.

However, within a year city centre parking demand fell off a cliff as Covid lockdowns kept workers at home. Luckily for Wilson those contracts had some time to run, but something clearly needed to change. Emails started arriving from individuals requesting secure bike parking on a pay-as-you go basis, emails he replied to one by one, and things grew from there. So grew the ‘coworking for cycle parking’ business.

I meet Wilson outside London Bridge station for a sneak peek at their newest site. He looks a little like a character from a Wes Anderson movie, cream slacks and a knitted tank top, and strawberry blonde ringlets poking out from under a baseball cap. He knows his stuff though. The site we’re visiting is hidden behind public

bike parking under a railway track near the entrance to London Bridge. It’s a step-free stone’s throw from the Shard and the News International offices. The 1,000 square foot site holds around 70 cycle parking spaces, including well-spaced Sheffield stands for cargo cycles, and rows of compact upright cycle stands.

“In the beginning we had about six months’ worth of cash to run the thing with investment from my mum and Godparents,” he says. Now they have investors, like any startup, and will likely be looking for more soon, to expand the business.

Spokesafe uses a combination of Network Rail, Transport for London, council and commercial land. To its original sites in Q-Park car parks in Oxford Circus, Chinatown and Soho, Spokesafe manages a shopping centre space in Derby. As well as a growing number of central London locations, several more are in the pipeline, including in Colchester city centre, Poole and Newport. Spokesafe is also managing a Transport for London pilot turning car parking space outside six stations in zones 2 and 3 into cycle parking, including Leytonstone, Woodford, North Greenwich and East Finchley.

Wilson says the company operates

like Just Park does for vehicle parking, with Spokesafe taking a percentage of fees and the landowner receiving the rest.

“We do everything from marketing to providing technology, payment processing, to a 24-hour customer service hotline, so when you call up it will be me or a colleague answering the phone,” he says. Wilson believes it’s a win-win, making revenue out of previously unused space.

With a background as a commercial property agent, Wilson isn’t the first person to think of repurposing urban space for cycle parking. Bike-Drop operated on a similar basis, during the pandemic.

Wilson says: “They were taking retail units in Central London. The money you would take you couldn’t even pay business rates, it was never going to be a viable business. They were charging around £6 a day, too, which is too much.”

“That’s why we operate in car parks. In shopping centres sometimes the landlord has got vacant space and he’s getting money from the council for it [bike parking].”

In Spokesafe’s Derby site the council dropped the rateable value of a retail unit allowing the landlord to convert

The Spokesafe app flags available cycle parking for commuters

to cycle parking. “It’s a good example of how the public and private sector can work together. If there is cycle parking it’s a great facility to have as a part of the shopping centre,” says Wilson. In Colchester the council is using the Spokesafe space to store shared cargo cycles local businesses can use for deliveries.

With 70-odd spaces the London Bridge site will likely generate £42,000-£43,000 a year, at a rate of £50 a month, or £1.66 a day, per space. In outer London and elsewhere, rates are lower. There’s more volatility in the pay as you go custom but the charge is almost double. They also took over management of an existing site in Finsbury Park in North London, and are in the process of changing from key card to app-based access.

“For car parking in central London by contrast it’s £50 a day,” says Wilson. “It’s some of the cheapest real estate in London. With the Congestion Charge and ULEZ people are driving in less so these car parks that were big money spinners all of a sudden are at 60% occupancy, so local car park operators are starting to look at alternative uses. Now when you go into many of them you will see things like self-storage.”

It’s not just the absence of motor vehicles, it’s cycling as a growing civic investment area – albeit one that’s still misunderstood.

“One of the problems… is that cycling is often viewed as a non-economic activity - which is wrong,” says Wilson.

“It’s about how do we get people back into the city centre, to [get around in a way that makes them] healthy and happy, and I think cycling has a huge part to play in that – so I think infrastructure that can encourage people to cycle is a good thing.”

He calls the units “active travel facilities”.

Although Spokesafe built the innards of some of its London sites – even using a cargo-biking electrician at the Chinatown site – with the capability to act as project managers, they prefer to simply run operations. “We know the rack and door providers, and the CCTV providers. We don’t make money out of that, but we are happy to work with them.”

At London Bridge the sliding metal grille gate and almost all of the cycle parking was already in place, they simply added a security door and keypad, and the cargo bike parking. They’ve signed up the first cargo bike customer – a zero emission delivery company – and are expecting more delivery companies to follow suit. At locations that aren’t under-

neath railway tracks there’s also lockers and eBike charging.

This year the company launched a web app, now handling 98% of pay as you go custom. “Whether we were building spaces ourselves or not, we knew we needed the technology. We had to develop a system that allows it to run 24/7. Covid forced our hand because it made us do it quicker”.

The app gives them useful data about who is using which spaces when, to help them understand and manage demand.

Users access Spokesafe sites via a code from the web app, which they input into a battery-powered keypad – which doesn’t need Wi-Fi or external power. Monthly and corporate users, the latter still 60% of their business, sign up by email.

The company isn’t yet financially sustainable – it’s still in start-up mode – but the individual parking locations are; it’s just a matter of bringing enough sites online to support the technology and growing team, says Wilson.

“We have to think about, if we want these things to grow and people to invest, we have to make a loss [initially] so that these businesses can stand on their own feet and contribute to society.”

Wilson expects to recruit more staff imminently, and to develop further services like daily insurance cover and repairs carried out while you’re parked.

“We do things we think are good for the customers,” he says. “Focused on managing these active travel facilities, we will continue to do more and more and more of these. We are constantly speaking to new people.”

www.spokesafe.com

“WE HAD TO DEVELOP A SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS IT TO RUN 24/7. COVID FORCED OUR HAND BECAUSE IT MADE US DO IT QUICKER.”

A Spokesafe cycle parking unit, accessible only via its booking system.

This is an age-old question. Many view marketing as a cost, others an investment. It depends on your mindset but also whether you know what you’re getting from it. If you don’t track the results and therefore know the result, arguably it’s a cost. Alternatively, if you know that for every £10 you spend, you’re getting £200 of revenue, then clearly this is an investment. Think of it like this. If you gave me £5 and I gave you £20 back, I would imagine that you would see this as a good thing and keep doing it. If on the other hand, the situation was reversed, you might think about stop giving me money. That’s the key thing. Know what you’re spending and understand what it’s giving you back.

Marketing is a series of mechanisms designed to attract, progress, and maximise opportunities for business. Best known, always beats best product or service, so how do you become the best known?

Marketing is one of the broadest topics that as a business coach, I cover. It’s a significant topic and specialism in its own right. Here, I’m going to try and give you an overview that can help you on your path of getting the right marketing working for your business.

As business owners, we know the importance of marketing but what marketing strategies should you adopt?

THE FIRST QUESTIONS TO ASK ARE:

WHAT IS IT WE REALLY WANT FROM OUR MARKETING?

WHY DO WE WANT THAT?

WHAT WOULD ACHIEVING THIS ALLOW YOU TO DO IN YOUR BUSINESS AND LIFE OUTSIDE OF IT?

It would be easy to say things like, “I want more sales” or, “To make more money, so that I have a better business, less stress and more enjoyment.”

These answers are pretty generic and quite ‘top level’. The truth is, you really need to dig into the heart of the ‘what’ and ‘why.’ By making it more specific, it allows you to target your actions and therefore be more effective and achieve better results.

To help be more specific, I use a model called the ‘Common 10.’ This model allows you to breakdown your marketing objectives that are common to all businesses in a simple and concise way.

“THE ART OF GETTING MARKETING WORKING BEST FOR YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS IS TO UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCES, DEFINING WHO ARE THEY, WHAT THEY WANT AND WHAT TONE YOU NEED TO USE WHEN YOU ‘TALK’ TO THEM.”

marketing working best for you and your business is to understand your audiences, defining who are they, what they want and what tone you need to use when you ‘talk’ to them. Just think about how you might talk to your best friend or partner and then think about how you might talk to your doctor. They would be very different in terms of style, tone, language, speed at which you talk or even volume.

I would recommend that you break down your customers into avatars. Who are they? Where do they live? What’s their age, their family type, job role or occupation, ball park annual income, education level? Make them as real as possible, even give them names.

Once done, get more detailed. Think about and identify their goals and values, what their sources of information are. Identify their challenges and pain points and then list out any objections and the role they take in the purchase process. Gaining clarity to your ‘who’s’, ‘how’s’, ‘why’s’ and ‘what’s’ will enable you to make your marketing more targeted and far more effective.

Thinking about the Common 10 model, let’s start with improving your brand and messages. This is the foundation on which all your marketing rests upon. Don’t try to short cut it as it will cost you dearly down the road. The way to break it down is this.

What is your brand identity? What’s your businesses persona? What type of language or imagery do you use?

Do you have a clear vision and mission? What does your end goal look like and how does it feel if you’re a customer?

What’s your brand’s values?

You’ve identified your target audiences already and built their avatars. Where will your brand be present and recognised?

How to increase your visibility, findability and reach for potential customers comes in one of two ways. They either find you or you have found them. To do the first, you need to ensure ease of findability and visibility as this will be crucial to bring this prospect to your door. For findability there’s multiple ways to do this, either off or online through using social media, blogs, websites, You Tube etc. The visibility element is the level of presence and authority that exists within all of those channels and platforms. Reach is all about the number of people you either contact or connect with and then how your messages are shared onwards or outwards.

Whichever way you decide to go, or methodology used, I would always say it’s crucial to develop a content and campaign calendar with clear outlines of what key messages you want to communicate across the year. Content leads to enhanced engagement and campaigns lead to uptake of any offers and orders.

Build a permission data base. We engage with all sorts of people, all of the time. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can build a database and what that could do for your business. A simple CRM system allows you to record that all so important information and ensure you have permission for ongoing communication. So many business owners think that they need more customers. In fact, they probably just need to re-engage with the people that they’ve already interacted with in the past. There’s a wealth of untapped potential just from these people.

NURTURING PROSPECTS AND ENABLING THEIR ENQUIRIES

Not everyone will turn into a customer day one. it doesn’t mean they don’t have value; it just means they aren’t ready to buy yet. Many businesses

focus on the clear and easy wins of the instant yes group, but this isn’t a great long terms strategy. How many enquiries getting answered by a ‘one and done’ email, if at all? How often do you re-engage with your previous customers or people who’ve made an enquiry? By staying in touch, building rapport and trust you are in fact building a future pipeline for your business.

INCREASING YOUR SALES CONVERSION

Effective salespeople all possess one common characteristic, they are fabulous at preventing objections. Please note that’s preventing not handling, there a big difference. Great salespeople are the ones that can pre-empt many possible objections by handling them in advance. By listening to what your customer is truly saying, being observant and even understanding some of their behaviours you can be far more effective at building relationships and getting that sale. To truly see the benefit of increased conversion, you need to understand your sales process. Mapping the customer journey and looking at the points of contacts you have, the sales scripts you use and the tools you have to pre-handle objections, the far greater likelihood of success.

MAXIMISING YOUR SALES VALUE

That old favourite of MacDonalds, “Do you want large fries with that?” Are all your customers aware of all that you do and sell, each service you offer? It might seem obvious but if someone buys a bike from you, do they know that you can service it? So often we make the mistake of assuming everyone knows what we do, and the reality is they don’t. By refining and understanding your sales processes and putting systems into place, you put your business in the best possible place to make them aware of just that.

INCREASED CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE

Managing customers on a long-term basis can take some effort, but it’s always worth it. Who are your top 10 ten customers? Quite often the 80/20 rule applies. 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. Reminding you of the warning customers love to buy but hate to be sold to, think about how you demonstrate your value. It could be through new learnings, new products launched, industry insights and possible recommendations. Always remember to use things that will engage with people emotionally, help generate aspiration and visualisation.

CAPTURING AND PRESENTING YOUR PROOF

We can sometimes find it difficult to ask for things such as reviews or testimonials, but I bet no one books a holiday without looking at just that. By asking for reviews and sharing them with potential prospect’s we’re demonstrating our worth and creditability. We all want to know what it feels like to be one of your customers.

We can use these pieces of marketing gold in several ways. On our websites, review sites, social media or attaching a relevant review to an enquiry about a product or enquiry that can increase the rate of acceptance and build consumer confidence in their choice.

REACTIVATING PAST CUSTOMERS OR PROSPECTS

As I previously mentioned, businesses sometimes only see the immediate customer but those customers or prospects that have gone into hibernation can be incredibly valuable with an enormous potential. What system do you have in place to periodically contact and re-engage with customers, or even those who haven’t yet bought,

or bought a long time ago? Are you regularly reminding them of our value and ‘keeping them warm?’ I was working with a client recently who hadn’t been keeping in contact with just these types of customers and by re-engaging using a simple e-shot, they gained three enquiries which lead to around £25,000 worth of sales.

BUILDING ALLIANCES

Can you build alliances with businesses that have the same type of customer as you but are not competing? This can increase your visibility and thus potential customer base. Look around your networks, local business parks and see who’s out there that serves your customer already. Obvious ones might be cafes that you could sign post to each other, or perhaps less obvious ones such as car dealerships or other outdoor pursuit stores? By building alliances and your community, you stand the best chance of becoming a potential customers’ first choice.

I have only touched on the very surface of marketing here. However, my top tips are;

1 Have a clear Brand Identity

2 Build customer avatars for each of your types of customers and market to them accordingly 3 Remember your customers in hibernation have value too 4 Have clear sales scripts and processes that make it easier to say “yes” to rather than “no”.

VAUDE: A SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

Sustainable bike outfitter, VAUDE, hopes to spark a chain reaction with eco gear.

You may have seen VAUDE’s cycle bags on the British market and that's just the tip of the iceberg. This sustainable outdoor brand makes ethical apparel for gravel cyclists, mountain bikers, and everything in between. What's more, everything German brand VAUDE makes comes from a Climate Neutral base both from a company standpoint and, this year, from a product aspect.

It’s no surprise that outdoor brands have a sense of responsibility to ensure their products are sustainable. Besides, it helps protect and conserve the sacred spaces for which the gear is made.

towards being socially and environmentally responsible.

“Climate protection needs to be the top priority, and we must take action now with all our might.” - Antje von Dewitz, CEO VAUDE

Taking note and creating its own standard of product development, VAUDE’s bike range features the Brand’s ‘Green Shape Label’. With the Brand’s range of cycle bags made in a Climate Neutral facility in Germany, they say it’s proof that outdoor gear shouldn’t be a burden to the environment.

The Green Shape standard requires a product to be made of over 50% bio-

label is comprehensive and rigorous, but achievable.

“As a product designer, my goal is to make all products repairable and recyclable.” – Lena Moser, Product Design

Fair working conditions are vital to VAUDE to ensure social responsibility. Besides, it’s not where a product is manufactured – it's how. Monitored by independent Fair Wear auditors, VAUDE holds a very high standard throughout the entire supply chain by ensuring safe working conditions, shifting power imbalances, and paying at least the living wage – not minimum wage. VAUDE QC teams are there, on the

German outdoor outfitter, VAUDE, is pedalling forward and boasts a portfolio of eco-credentials – and is encouraging other brands to do the same.

Born in Southern Germany near Lake Constance, family-run VAUDE has taken both environmental factors and social factors seriously for over two decades. From the early 2000s, when the brand launched an entire range that was fully bluesign®(r) approved, to partnering with the WWF, the largest conservation organisation in the world. The HQ has been Climate Neutral since 2012 and this year, 2022, announced, its full product range would be too. VAUDE is headed by CEO Antje von Dewitz, an award-winning sustainability pioneer, who just last year won Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and was commended for her commitments

based or recycled materials – think hemp, organic cotton, or bio-based plastics and Nylons that use castor oil instead of petroleum. These materials use raw products that don’t compete with food chains, don’t require synthetic fertilisers or pesticides, and don’t impact local communities or the surrounding ecosystem.

By using sustainable raw materials, durability, longevity, and repairability aren’t affected. To the contrary, studies have shown that bio-based Nylon is stronger, more elastic, lighter, and absorbs less moisture than conventional Nylon without the impact on the environment. Green Shape products are, if necessary, easily repairable with spare parts available and guides are provided on how to fix them yourself. The standard for the Green Shape

ground, speaking the local language to support the continuous improvement of social standards. VAUDE wants to positively encourage others to do the same.

Becoming a sustainable brand isn’t a competition, VAUDE stresses. Instead, it’s a team effort to ensure outdoor spaces, local communities, and employees receive the respect they deserve. VAUDE’s eco journey has been a long one and the team share the knowledge they have learned through its VAUDE Academy. The Academy supports the process towards sustainable management by hosting university lectures, workshops, and individual consultations. The Brand is still learning, and will continue to do so, whilst inspiring others to join them in developing sustainably.

www.vaude.com

“AS A PRODUCT DESIGNER, MY GOAL IS TO MAKE ALL PRODUCTS REPAIRABLE AND RECYCLABLE.”

LENA MOSER, PRODUCT DESIGN

Vaude

POWER IN PURITY

Since 1st January of this year Vaude has been a verified climate neutral business

Known as one of the industry leaders on attempts to get climate neutral on all fronts, Vaude’s Head of Sales in Bike Sports Gernot Moser says that communicating the story from bike shop staff to consumer can catch the ears of new customers…

How’s business been for Vaude since the world somewhat began to settle on the back of Covid’s big shake up?

The last two years during the pandemic were quite strenuous but successful for Vaude in terms of business and turnover growth. Though we had a tough and demanding period. Like other companies we had to deal with lockdowns both in the stores and in our suppliers’ countries, problems in the global logistics and so on.

But as a strong brand we could benefit from the overall trend for cycling and outdoor activities and sustainable living. In fact, sustainability makes us crisis-proof. Our strong roots in a sustainable business model with solid planning and financing is a key factor for enduring success.

Your priorities are not strictly sales growth, it seems, there is a deeper message with Vaude; tell us about the brand philosophy:

At Vaude, we follow three guiding principles: Mountain, We, Forward. Vaude was born in the fresh mountain air of the Alps,

and we use the mountains as inspiration behind our products. They’re made to a high standard, always taking sustainability into account, and focusing on durability, longevity, and the ability to allow others to experience the great outdoors.

The team at Vaude represents the ‘We’ part of our philosophy. Together we take a thoughtful approach to both nature and people, working together to take action against climate change and provide people with a better quality of life on our planet.

Finally, ‘Forward’ represents the ecocredentials by which we are guided. As pioneers on the path towards becoming even more sustainable, we tackle challenges and smash the limits of what’s possible. It drives us forward.

Let’s go deeper on the environmental credentials upon which Vaude prides itself – what metrics have you to prove your efforts are beyond marketing? Vaude compiles an annual full climate footprint including scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, according to Green House Gas Protocol. All

Vaude’s expertise in adventure gear translates perfectly into some top on the bike pieces

“A CORE RANGE OF OUR PRODUCTS ARE ON STOCK AT THE RALEIGH WAREHOUSE. BEYOND THAT, BIKE SHOPS CAN ALSO PLACE ORDERS FOR PRODUCTS THAT RALEIGH DOESN’T HAVE STOCK OF, AND WE SHIP FROM OUR EUROPEAN WAREHOUSE IN GERMANY.”

ASK THE BOSS

Vaude

Vaude products are climate neutral by means of climate offsetting. Since 1st January 2022 Vaude has been a climateneutral company which means we fully offset our global greenhouse gas emissions.

At the company headquarters Vaude has been completely climate neutral since 2012. Our next milestone is our supply chain. We have created a reliable database that includes our at home emissions at company headquarters and also the two largest emitters from the upstream i.e., our supply chain and the production and distribution of our products.

We are transparent about our environmental journey and in-depth reports and analysis can be found on our website.

How have you found these messages resonate with different shopping demographics?

A UK study commissioned by Deloitte found that consumers value sustainable practices akin to those that Vaude value: producing sustainable packaging and products. Most Vaude packaging is made from environmentally friendly cardboard and, whilst we can’t get away from polybags, those that we do use come from recycled materials.

The there’s reducing waste in the manufacturing process. Most of our waste is recycled. Alongside this, we are committing to ethical working practices – this is one of Vaude’s three guiding principles. Reducing carbon footprint is another pillar of our efforts. We are climate neutral as are our products. Add to that, respect for human rights.

Bike shops can pull new customers with this messaging by talking about it and sharing Vaude’s story. Consumers are opting towards products and brands that offer longevity, durability, and sustainability.

We offer all kinds of POS Material to visualise the benefits of buying a sustainable product. Bike shops can use the brand Vaude to address a sustainable target group. All POS Materials and dealer support is for UK bike shops is organised via Raleigh.

Tell us about the significant investment made in Vietnam and how this has helped the business evolve?

Our founder Albrecht von Dewitz, father of Antje, is a true pioneer of the early outdoor business and involved in backpack manufacturing for more than 40 years. He built up a manufacturing site for backpacks in Vietnam in 2009. The close cooperation in product develop -

ment, production planning and sewing processes with a strong ambition for quality, functionality and sustainability in every product is a key factor for us. Our waterproof HF welded bike paniers are 100% Made in Germany in our own manufacturing facility at the HQ, so some goods are more localised now too.

What products have you on offer specifically tailored for cycling?

Vaude offers a top to toe range of cycling apparel, hardware like bike paniers, backpacks and accessories for all kinds of cycling enthusiasts. From urban commuting to performance oriented off road mountain bike, inclunding footwear with more than 20 styles. There is also a growing kid’s bike collection.

What’s more, Vaude established a specific bike collection for drizzly and cold winter times, as we see cycling as an all-season outdoor activity. All these products are climate neutral and sustainable.

A core range of our products are on stock at the Raleigh warehouse. Beyond that, bike shops can also place orders for products that Raleigh doesn’t have stock of, and we ship from our European warehouse in Germany.

It appeared at Sea Otter Europe that there were some excellent options for the busy gravel market – what innovations make these lines a talking point in store when dressing bikes?

Gravel biking or bike packing adventure is a growing trend in the bike industry. With our competence not only in cycling, but also outdoor gear like tents and sleeping bags and waterproof packs, it perfectly fits in our product range.

Head to toe: Vaude also has a footwear catalogue

Vaude feels as though its messaging is resonating with a new type of shopper wishing to know more about a product's journey

As an aside to its Vietnam operations, Vaude is increasingly producing in Germany

Do you find that bike retailers can also do well from stocking some of the more outdoor orientated lines, for example your camping equipment?

A fully equipped gravel bike with bags and gear is an eye-catcher for the windows. But this won’t grow sales for itself. What’s more important is profound expertise and product knowledge of the sales service staff. My advice would be to aim at a cooperation with a local camping store and guide the customers there.

What technologies both proprietary and licensed are we seeing in your fabrics? We pride ourselves on using sustainable materials in all our outdoor gear, from organic yarns such as hemp, or cotton to bio-based plastics, plus nylon and materials from recycled household waste.

Biobased plastic: Bio-based plastic contains castor oil, as opposed to petroleum. Not only does castor oil grow without supplemental irrigation on poor soil, but it also doesn’t compete with the food chain. The oil of the castor beans produces fibres for clothing and plastic components whilst offering the same properties as conventional materials.

Biobased Nylon: This yarn is made with 62% vegetable oil and primarily castor oil, protecting the environment whilst offering better functional properties than traditional Nylon. It’s stronger, more elastic, lighter, and absorbs less moisture.

Recycled fabrics: Using waste items such as PET plastic bottles, used fishing nets, old car tires, and even coffee grounds, we’re able to create fibres that are high-quality, conserving valuable resources and saving energy at the same

time. These materials can be quickdrying, odour resistant, and even offer natural UV protection.

Organic cotton and hemp: whilst nonorganic cotton has been dubbed ‘the dirty crop’, the story is very different for organic cotton. Farmers make the most of crop cycles and this results in no need for synthetic chemicals to grow the plants, which are hazardous to local ecosystems, the climate, and the health of local people. Natural hemp fibres, taken from the hardy plant that requires little water and no fertilizers or pesticides, can create high-quality and durable products with little impact on the environment.

Eco-finishes, PVC-free, RDS down and certified leather are also used across Vaude’s product range.

How should a shop set this product up in store for maximum impact to the browsing customer?

We offer a wide package of sales support with displays, banners, instore TVs and POS materials for our marketing focus topics. Our eco stories always can be linked to the final product.

What is your international footprint and where will we find your gear?

We are distributed in over 50 countries worldwide, but our UK bike dealer base today is quite small. As we see a growing interest in Vaude in the UK we’ve decided to focus more on the UK market than we did in the past.

How can bike shops become a Vaude stockist in the UK?

Raleigh is our Bike Sports distributor in the UK. But Raleigh doesn’t only act as a distributor. Whenever a bike shop is interested in a Vaude product which is not stocked in the UK, Raleigh acts as the connecting part between the retailer and Vaude. In such a case we ship the products directly from our European warehouse in Germany.

As we are focussing more on the UK market than we have in the past, we are looking for bike shops who are interested in selling a sustainable brand. We are open to developing strategies together with bike shops who are willing to set a strategic focus on Vaude. Interested dealers can contact either Raleigh, or Martin Reiniger who is the responsible Country Sales Manager Bike Sports at Vaude. Contact: martin.reiniger@Vaude.com

www.vaude.com

Bright pannier bags can bring life to bike displays

LIGHT IT UP