Issue 79 | August 2012
EDITORIAL
NEWS 4-8 MYSTERY SHOPPER
Our undercover reporter quizzes retailers in Bedford and Biggleswade, with a truly shocking piece of advice from one retailer...
FOCUS ON… GATORADE EUROBIKE 2012 Sponsored by 18
Now mere weeks away, we provide a guide to the essential global trade show
BIKE CRIME
E-BIKES Cycling Made Easy exclusively brings two new bikes to the market, while FreeGo goes to Oz
OUTDOOR & FITNESS Scootfest comes to the UK this summer and companies sign up to the Outdoor Trade Show 2012
LIGHTS AND HIGH VIS 53 MOUNTAIN BIKES 64 DEALER PROFILE PEOPLE NEW PRODUCTS 62 LETTERS
Ben Haywards of Cambridge recently celebrated its 100th birthday. BikeBiz brings the cake...
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New faces at Moore Large, Nemesis and Kona, plus FSA’s USA MD steps down
74
Respro’s Cinqro mask, Transition’s Carbon Covert, and Cube’s Elite 29 and AMS 100 SHPC
SPOKESMAN EVENTS 80 OFF TRACK 92 NUMBER CRUNCHING 90 94
Carlton Reid attempts to make us jealous about his trip to PressCamp and mostly succeeds
SPONSORED BY
71 76
Bikes can legally only be built by a trained mechanic. One reader makes the suggestion...
CSG UK’s house show, Upgrade reveals the latest brand to join its portfolio and more from pages 4 to 8...
I WAS lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks in sunny Spain last month, where temperatures regularly hit 34C and I was beginning to wonder if I had been imagining all that wet stuff falling from the sky back home. Once the fortnight was over and I stepped off the plane in Blighty it was soon pretty clear that I hadn’t dreamt up the rain and that the UK had indeed
just seen one of its wettest May and Junes ever. Needless to say, that’s not ideal for the cycle industry,
where the sunchine/rain balance is literally the difference between enthusiasts and fair-weather getting on their bikes and into their local bike shop. Halfords’ quarterly results said as much and reported a fall
26 22
Five decades of experience in the sports nutrition business means Gatorade has learnt a thing or two about boosting athlete performance...
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Bike Secure – a new initiative designed to cut cycle theft – launches to the trade
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in like-for-like revenue for its cycle sales over the thriteen weeks leading up to June 29th – perhaps a bit of a shock when cycles have, together with the rest of its leisure business, usually been a solid performer for the retail chain of late. There’s more on how the wet weather has impacted on the cycle trade over the page in our news section.
Is it any wonder we’re always banging on about the weather when it changes the short-term fortunes of retailers and their personnel?
While the rain hasn’t been great for bike retail, other
industries have benefited. BikeBiz sister mag PCR, dealing with the retailing of PCs (you guessed it), conversely has seen retailers perform well. One day before Halfords published its results, John Lewis revealed that store sales had increased 15.3 per cent year-on-year, with its Electrical and Home Technology department cited a ‘star performer’. The retailer said that the inclement weather had played a part in those results, with customers willing to spend on indoor activities and equipment when it’s cats and dogs outside. So maybe that’s why we do like to talk about the weather
so much in the UK, when a percentage of takings depends on it. But just how much poor weather really dents profits is a bit of a moot point, however. With the regularly inconsistent summers we get in Britain you’d be mad to assume May to September would solely see sun and the accompanying sales boost. Do any falls in sales due to the weather just get evened out – with customers spending the same amount – just over a shorter period when there’s a break in the rain? The Olympics may be the other significant factor in how bike sales perform for the rest of the summer period. And then there’s Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de France win (fingers crossed – I’m writing this three days before the Tour has ended). Will success at the top translate to sales at the till, whatever the weather?
Jonathon Harker, Editor
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