HOTLINES
Hotlines pinpoints Ghost, among other brands from its portfolio, as
star performers
Temperature
HOTLINES SAW a big sales spike in January – why was the month so special and what were the reasons behind the increase? Yes, we had our best January ever. It certainly wasn’t the weather that’s for sure! What’s great, is that even though we had a
record breaking January, it wasn’t down to a single defining factor. We didn’t have a big delivery of bikes shipped out or see a particular new product arrive. We’ve seen growth across the board and in particular there are a handful of hot brands that are seeing really exceptional growth at the moment. WTB is going through a phase of redeveloping the line and the first of the new products have really hit the nail on the head. IXS has developed a fantastic range for 2014 and sales of the new Trail RS helmet and the new Flow and Carve knee pads in particular have been strong. Spank is another brand that has seen amazing growth over the last 12 months. The technology and detail behind all the Spank products is incredible. The Oozy wheelset has beaten off all the competition in tests this year and that has translated to strong sales. Core Bike show was a big success for us this
year. Dealers seemed to like what we had on offer and we left the show with a full order book and a smile on our faces.
You’ve cited Lapierre, Ghost and Nukeproof as being top performers this year – does that indicate that MTB as a sector is showing encouraging signs of growth? We are still seeing growth in MTB. Road has perhaps hogged the limelight in terms of
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headline growth figures in recent years but the mountain bike scene in the UK is incredibly strong and getting stronger. There are more places to ride than ever before and more great products to use. Don’t forget though, that both Lapierre and Ghost have strong road ranges and we’ve seen triple digit growth in Lapierre road in the last 12 months.
“The MTB
scene in the UK is incredibly strong and getting stronger.” Martin Astley, Hotlines
Aside from that recent sales spike, how’s business for Hotlines? Business is good and 2014 is continuing to look promising, so far it doesn’t look like January was a spike. If spring comes a bit earlier this year it would be nice.
Last year you introduced the Lapierre shop- within-a-shop concept – how has that gone so far? Is that still a focus? We expect our first delivery of shop in shop to arrive this spring. It’s a neat and very flexible solution so we are expecting it to be a success.
You’ve recently launched a B2B site. How important is it to get B2Bs right and what can you tell us about Hotlines’ version? Yes, we are really happy to have launched our B2B. It is a big focus for 2014. These days everybody is so short on time it is our job as a distributor to make as much information available to our dealers as possible quickly, at any time. A B2B site needs to enable our dealers to order easily, take advantage of offers and savings and also to access brand information. I think we’ve done a good job and
The new iXS RS helmet as shown off at Core Bike
Hotlines’ sales hit a record high for January this year. Jonathon Harker asks marketing manager Martin Astley why the rise and what’s the focus for the Scottish distributor…
have a user-friendly site that serves our customers well. Importantly it allows customers to order at the best price available in order to maximise margins. It’s easy to sign up and our external sales team are on hand to help any dealers with questions.
You mentioned some exciting new bits and pieces coming up for Hotlines. Can you reveal more? We unveiled a few new products at Core. The standout products have to be the new Spank Oozy 295 bead bite wheels. These are an evolution of the award winning Oozy wheels and feature patent pending technology that we think will be a real game changer. Customers who have avoided tubeless setups due to burping issues need no longer worry. We were also really pleased to show the Manitou Mattoc at Core for the first time, the most important fork Manitou have released in many years. Available for 26-inch 650B and 29-inch in 150-170mm of travel, the Mattoc borrows the damping system from the fantastic Dorado fork and feedback from journalists so far on the performance has been very positive.
Have you got any market predictions? In the current financial climate it’s incredibly hard to say. We intend to focus on serving our dealers to the best of our ability and bring them strong products that can make them good margin. What we do know is that cyclists will always love to ride their bikes. Long may that continue!
www.hotlines-uk.com
BIKEBIZ MARCH 37
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