OXFORD PRODUCTS
26 designs are now carried by Oxford Products
Are you sitting comfortably?
…then we’ll begin. Jonathon Harker speaks with Oxford Product’s marketing director about its revamped Comfy range of neck gear and how the range of neck tubes has played a part in the company’s increasing cycle sector presence…
WHILE IT has been in the bicycle business for some time – since the mid ‘80s when it entered the market with a best selling D-lock – Oxford Products has been steadily ramping up its presence across the bicycle sector over the past few years. That progress is perhaps best summed up by a count of its product range. In 2006 Oxford Products has a couple of hundred product lines in its cycle line-up. Now, seven years later, it has over 2,000…and counting. New products nonewithstanding, one of the
lynchpins of the line-up has been the Comfy range of multi-functional head and neck wear. While Oxford now sells hundreds of thousands of the neck tubes every year, it wasn’t an instant success, by any means. Oxford Products’ marketing director Henry
Fletcher takes up the story: “Oxford initially launched a couple of seamless neckwear products back in the early 2000s. They didn’t sell at all well.” The persistent company eventually scored success after a change in approach. “In 2006 we cottoned onto the fact that this
is a lifestyle product, not an accessory like a lock, a pannier or a pump, so we designed a whole new, fresh range of designs on bright, interesting packaging and came up with a really powerful USP: three for the price of one.” From that point on the triple pack was born
and Oxford Products began shifting the aforementioned hundreds of thousands of Comfys around the UK and beyond. The key feature of Comfy neck tubes is seamlessness, BikeBiz is told, with no pesky lines of stitching to irritate the skin, so they can be worn tight to the neck and effectively trap all the warm air. “The material is extremely soft and
comfortable to touch. It is also very thin, so you can wear it under any garments and it is perfect for active sports.
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“The bonus feature is that you can print almost any pattern onto the material and make it into more of a fashion/lifestyle product, rather than simply a functional one.” Change is the name of the game though, and
Oxford Products – actually based in Oxford neighbour Witney, fact fans – has had another revamp of the range, keen to keep Comfy sales, er, comfortably high. The firm is seeking to achieve that through a fresh batch of designs and a re-focus on the lifestyle aspect of the product range. Back to Fletcher: “Following tremendous sales success with the initial range of triple packs, we have been inspired to once again redesign the range, this time using a fashion/lifestyle designer to give us a really wide breadth of appeal. “Now the range includes mini ranges for
‘classic patterns’, animal prints, patriotic designs and much more – a total of 26 new designs.” It’s not just looks either, with new fabrics and accompanying designs recently developed. “We’ve also created two additional ranges
using technical fabrics. The Thermolite and CoolMax ranges provide a further 12 designs.” And never ones to shy away from a wide
product range, Oxford has also now got a range of 12 ‘Snugs’ – Comfys with a thermal fleece section at the bottom. Finally, there’s a range of four Cosys made from Merino wool. All in all, that’s a wholly new range of 54 neck tubes. Despite that renovation of the Comfy range,
there’s more to come, confesses Fletcher: “Yes [there are plans to expand the range]. We aim to be the place to come for technical neckwear, so there are lots to go at in terms of materials, designs and styles.” No brand range update would be complete without a revamp of the all-important packaging. For the Comfy range, packaging has more of a lifestyle look, backing the new look and designs of the 54-strong line-up.
“In 2006 Oxford had just a couple of hundred
products for the cycle market, now it has over 2,000 and counting...”
“Our motivation for investing in new designs came from the sheer success of the previous generation,” the marketing boss explains. “However, as a business, we are targeting both increased market share in our traditional markets and expansion into new areas – this product is the perfect product for diversification, because it is so universal.” Likewise, Oxford has plenty of point of sale options on offer for retailers, promising something for every store location, and, Fletcher adds: “We will also be producing a bespoke display unit, just for the neckwear range, which will have a tiny footprint but lots of product to sell.” Speaking of selling, the economic climate
remains frosty (though hopefully the weather won’t), so how is business for the firm behind Comfy, with its foot in a number of sectors, including motorcycling? “Oxford is going from strength-to-strength in all the markets the company serves. “We doubled in size between 2006 and
2011, then grew again strongly in 2012 and into 2013. “The market conditions are not especially
favourable, so we are simply having to take greater market share and diversify our product portfolio in order to feed this growth,” adds Fletcher. And we’ve heard how Oxford has increased
its range of cycle products from a couple of hundred to over 2,000, but how does that translate to turnover for the growing firm? “Our cycle business accounted for under five per cent of our turnover in 2006. Today it represents 15 per cent of our (much increased) turnover. “We view cycle as our sleeping giant and
are investing hard to awaken it,” Fletcher concludes.
www.oxprod.com info@oxprod.com; 01993 862 300
BIKEBIZ MARCH 31
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