INTERVIEW
some of the ways we distributed, just to see us through that sort of short term. Luckily the Covid bubble set in, and the cycling market recovered quickly. “And because of our different distribution channels, we
Hiplok’s Ben Smith and John Abrahams
“I think, when we started the business, we knew it wasn’t just about this one product,” adds Smith. “We wanted to solve issues for cyclists everywhere. That’s always been our brand vision.”
And in 2026, that vision has expanded to motorcycles and mopeds, too. “Yes, people recognise us for our wearable lock, but as we’ve
grown, things like the anti-angle grinder locks have really helped establish us as a premium, credible security brand. We were the first to market with the anti-angle grinder lock, and now we have a whole range of locks and anchors in that 1000 series. “And that has allowed us to diversify into motorbike, which is a good crossover. A lot of consumers have a bicycle and a motorbike. Over 15 years, yes, the product line has changed significantly, but we’ve stayed true to ourselves on the brand and just diversified to reach more of the cycling and motorcycle communities.” Hiplok will have celebrated its 15th anniversary by the time
this article is published, and although it’s been arguably some of the toughest years to be in this market, the brand has continued to grow. “Every year we have launched at least one new product, often
three new products in a year. We’ve grown every year since we started, revenue wise. We’ve always had ambition to capture a wide variety of the market, and I think more so now you will see us in stores, and we’re not just about the wearable locks.” One particular growth period for Hiplok was during the
Covid boom. But, the brand has continued to grow after the market shrunk, with Smith citing Hiplok’s multi-distribution model and small company size as seeds for its success. “We have always worked through a distribution model in other markets, which has helped us to expand internationally quite quickly. At the time of Covid, we were selling internationally, and Free on Board (FOB) out of Asia. We had a production run about to leave, and I remember they started cancelling and we were thinking “Oh, God, what have we done?” “We brought some of the goods back to the UK, changed
46 | April 2026
were able to turn things on quite quickly, because we have the warehouse here in the UK we could FOB out of Asia. So actually, we did well from Covid, or we recovered quickly from those first few weeks. “I think where we have really bucked the trend is we have continued to grow since covid, and I think we’ve always been quite commercially sensible with the business. We’re very hands on with four directors, and we expanded the team going from 7 to 17. “And we were very careful not to overstock. We could see that there was obviously a bubble around covid. But what we kept doing was we kept innovating and producing new products.” Interestingly, Smith accounts much of her team’s creativity
and resourcefulness not down to sheer bike passion or knowledge of the industry. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. “And I think the industry would certainly be able to compete
more with things like the automotive industry, if we were a little bit more diverse in our thinking. I don’t think that comes just down to gender. “One of the things that I’ve noticed, particularly in the
UK cycling industry, is there are a lot of people that are real cycling enthusiasts. And I find that some of the women I meet in the cycling industry are wonderful, great leaders, but they’re real cycling enthusiasts. “Yet as we sort of go forward, project forward 10-20, years, people getting on bikes are not necessarily going to be cycling enthusiasts. They are everybody, and so I think that’s one area that the cycling industry we could be more inclusive in that respect. “And to attract people from a wider pool of industries, which I think would help in the sort of the commercial growth of many of the businesses in our industry.” So how do you attract workers to the cycling industry that
don’t necessarily already enjoy riding bikes? Smith says it’s partially about “where you post the jobs.” “First, people that are enthusiastic about bikes, you need that, and you need that passion, so I’m absolutely not taking away from those people, but balance is key. “And I think, as an industry, you see this across the car industry as well, when you are interviewing just not having that bias about whether they’ve been in the industry already, and learning from other industries. “When I think about our team, our e-commerce manager
was working for a gardening company. It’s a consumer good, and you can see some crossover, but it’s more about how what your approach is to solving problems, and to communicating. And what you can bring, because those people bring experience of the way that things are done in other places.”
www.bikebiz.com
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