RETAILERS
IF YOU CAN’T FIND IT, BUILD IT
From distribution to the shop floor, Brink mountain bike store in Bedfordshire operates across the off-road market. Alex Ballinger hears from Mat Clark about how the team developed its own EPOS system to meet its needs
T
here are few retailers in the UK that operate across the same breadth as Brink mountain bike store. Based in Bedford, right on the doorstep of
Chicksands Bike Park, Brink is a specialist mountain bike retailer, with side businesses in suspension servicing, and more recently distribution. Being positioned across retail, servicing, and distribution
presents unique challenges for the Brink team, which resulted in it developing its own Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) system, to manage all aspects of the business. Brink stocks a variety of mountain bike-specific lines, including Specialized, Marin, Juliana and Santa Cruz bikes, Fox, Rockshox, and Ohlins suspension, as well as plenty of apparel and accessories. While Brink is the retail face of the business, the brand also offers specialist MTB suspension servicing under the business
16 | August 2022
name Plush, and has most recently established its distribution wing Apex, with a portfolio of four brands specific to the mountain market - most notably frame protection specialist DyedBro, which remains the biggest seller for the distributor. Mat Clark, director of Apex and partner in the Brink side of the business, said: “In general, I’m very positive about our industry and especially the MTB market. When you look at wider business developments like Warner Brothers taking over from Red Bull to broadcast [UCI mountain bike] World Cups, or retailers being purchased and developed by bigger corporations, or brands moving towards worldwide B2C models, you can see our industry is maturing and it’s an exciting place to be right now. “Short term we have some supply chain challenges, but this is true for all industries right now and it’s our job as the service centre to balance these supply issues with good
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