RALEIGH
UK MD Mark
Gouldthorp at Raleigh’s Nottinghamshire HQ
Raleigh the troops
A year on from the Accell takeover, a candid Mark Gouldthorp, Raleigh UK’s MD, tells Jonathon Harker what has changed for the world’s best known bicycle brand, what’s the future for Cyclelife, offering a one-stop-shop for dealers and how Raleigh is planning to corner the cycle lifestyle market…
It has been 15 months since Accell purchased Raleigh. Has there been one significant change that stands out for you above all others? Accell’s management style is very low touch, so the biggest change has been behind the scenes in terms of financial and operational. Culturally they are very IBD-orientated. You can see that if you look at their other operations in France, Holland, Germany, Italy, etc, and that culture starts to permeate into Raleigh, whereas Raleigh has always had feet in various camps. Their style of management and approach to market has started to permeate too. That’s a big, but subtle thing. You don’t wake up in the morning and think ‘Right, we’re going to do it differently today’. If you were to pin it down to one thing I’d say it’s that.
In terms of marketing and the shift in our
development period and timescales – they were underway anyway. We’ve recognised that we need to be on the same launch timescales as the other global brands so we compressed our lead times down to allow that to happen. Thankfully we’ve not sacrificed development opportunity or improvement to do it.
20 BIKEBIZ AUGUST “Culturally,
Accell are very IBD-
orientated.” Mark Gouldthorp, Raleigh
What can you tell us about the new Raleigh ranges and how they’ve been received? The reaction has been fantastic – I know everyone who sits in front of you says that – but we moved on a big step with the ‘13 range. The 2014 line-up is about consolidating that position and filling in the missing gaps in the range. We’re happy enough to say that we’re now at the point where it is evolution, not revolution. In the last two years we’ve massively changed our personnel, moving new people in and got more suppliers. For our 2014 range, quite a lot of our bikes will come out of Accell’s factory in Turkey. So we are shifting production nearer to Europe – not because Accell says we have to do it, but because economically it makes sense. We’ve got an improved factory capability, better quality control and at as good a price as we were buying before. From a supplier viewpoint, that’s another Accell change. They’ve unlocked brands for us too, like Haibike and XLC. It’s not been gargantuan, but we are starting to see the effects of being part of a larger group. The introduction of Haibike this year was a little late for the marketplace, but it has given us back that proposition to be a one-stop-
shop. That’s what the dealers want. We’ve got Raleigh, Diamondback, Haibike, Dahon and the ever-widening accessory base. At this rate we’ll need a larger warehouse. But that’s what we want – to offer a one-stop-shop for the dealer. We don’t ram that down everyone’s throats but we do want to offer everything they need.
There’s a SRAM angle too? The doors to that brand have been opened through the relationship Accell has? Accell’s relationship with SRAM is very strong and that’s definitely improved our links with them. We are starting to see a heavier emphasis with SRAM on our bikes and I think that will continue.
How has the Accell acquisition affected Raleigh’s target for recruiting more retailers to Cyclelife? I still believe there is a place for a Cyclelife operation in the UK IBD base. It makes sense for the German market, it makes sense for the Dutch market, it should make sense for the UK market. It is still in our hearts. We had dealers move away from Cyclelife – not because they fell out with us, but because
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