FEATURE
What have been some of the highlights/ challenges throughout the 30 years? There are tonnes of standout highlight products and ranges we’ve developed throughout the years which I’m proud of. The original Nano-Tech Cleaner has remained a core focus of the business and its formula is still in constant development, which is awesome. Our Puncture Protection range is the most comprehensive on the market and continues to grow. I’m particularly proud of a product we’ve launched in the last couple of years: Punk Powder. It’s the world’s first plastic-free bike cleaner and has loads of sustainability attributes. It was a huge challenge and risk to take the classic Nano-Tech formula and make it in powder form – It needed to perform as well as the OG formula and be super easy for customers to use. We’ve had great success with it since launching in 2021 and it’s been a major contributor to us achieving our 200+ tonne plastic- saving target, which is part of our Project Green initiative. In terms of challenges there’s been a few for sure. In a high innovation business, you’re constantly faced with challenges that no one has either thought to, or been able to solve, but we know that breaking new ground is what separates us from the rest, so it’s a challenge we revel in.
The pandemic posed another significant challenge. In the early stages we mobilised quickly, responding to the global shortage of hand-sanitiser by developing our own which we donated to front line workers, along with 3D printed PPE. We’ve then spent the three years since riding the same waves everyone else in the bike industry has. Swift adaptation to changing trade landscapes has been crucial. We’ve been on a roller-coaster ride in recent years but we’re weathering the storms well and have managed to maintain good growth throughout, despite the challenges that have been thrown at us. That’s testament to the brand and the team we’ve built.
How has the brand changed in the last three decades? In a lot of ways, the brand and the goals of the business have stayed true to the original concept we started with. It was very tough at the start to explain why bike shops needed to stock a cleaner whilst also trying to market the products directly to riders with a super tight budget. In the early stages Muc-Off was a small part of the larger X-Lite business, but by the early 2000’s we were really gathering momentum. An early part of the plan was investing in and working with race teams which was a great way to promote the product range. This is still the case today with athlete and team technical partnerships remaining the backbone of our marketing and product development approach.
MTB is our heartland, and it will always remain central to the brand and the business, but over the years the brand has expanded into new areas of cycling and into Powersports. Working with Team Sky from 2013 was an important step in helping us enter into the road cycling scene with as much
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Alex Trimnell
impact as possible. The team were very successful when we joined forces with them, so we took the chance to develop Hydrodynamic Lube with them, which is still one of our premium lubes today. It brought ultra-low friction drivetrains to the team, and played to the marginal gains concept which was the big thing in cycling at the time (and still is.). It was developed with data as the team likes to talk in quantifiable terms, so we had to develop our own in-house dynos delivering hard and fast data that proved the performance and efficiency gains of every lube formula. This partnership launched us into the road market, and we’ve never looked back. Nowadays we partner with INEOS Grenadiers and EF EasyPost and have racked up ten grand tour wins over the years, multiple Olympic Gold Medals, and Hour Records. Our high-end performance products and leading-edge R&D capabilities are areas of the business I’m really proud of. Another major step change for us was getting closer to the independent retailers and taking the business dealer direct in 2018, this was how we started with X-Lite but over the years we changed to a distribution model. Going back to dealer direct model has allowed us to support IBDs nationwide by building a direct brand relationship through our sales team. Not only are we able to offer category-leading margin support, but we’ve also launched multiple retailer programmes which help to drive store footfall, including supplying hundreds of refill stations into UK IBDs, where consumers can refill their used bottles of Nano Tech Bike Cleaner – A win, win for riders, IBDs, and the environment. Supporting IBDs with fast selling consumables has made us a staple part of their businesses and helping IBDs with key POS displays to drive a very high turnover for a small space in store has been a great in challenging trading conditions when other categories have
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