DISTRIBUTOR
and 8.4 out of 10 for Extra and Cyclex respectively which is considered great, as well as a plethora of good, constructive feedback that has helped us prioritise our plans for the coming seasons. We thank all our retail partners for their business, their feedback and for their ongoing partnership and business.
What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for 2023? We need a better, clearer crystal ball! It’s super tough to see when we can expect a stronger recovery, primarily because it’s affected by so many things bigger and beyond the remit of our little industry. Supply chain resets take a significant time to filter through.
Even when demand recovers from consumers, there is so much stock to sell through in retailers, then within distribution before it hits manufacturing levels. Lead times have significantly shortened across this industry, but order frequencies and fulfilment are still ‘normalising’. We all pray for a strong recovery of course, with so much
stock within the marketplace, for its ongoing survival in the shape it is today, in reality, I guess next year will be key for many less stable players. Ultimately, although people are holding the line right now, some will be under more pressure than others to clear stock to survive. We have already seen some casualties along the way; in addition to some other market shape changes as the bigger bike brands have paced up
their deeper involvement with direct retail. It’s not all doom and gloom, far from it, just less certain than it has been for some time. The broader outlook for cycling remains very positive, especially at the enthusiast level, and environmental tradewinds only support our industry further.
What new brands have you added to the portfolio, and what opportunities do they present? In all honesty, we have probably trimmed more than we have gained over the past 12 months. Extra is well known for its curated ‘stable’ of strong brands and we want to stay really true to that, equally we have very few significant category gaps that are not already supported within our existing portfolio. We appreciate that dealers are consolidating the number of supplier accounts that they work with, so are mindful to keep our range as complete and broad as it is, across key soft goods, parts and accessories as well as workshop supplies. We like to work with brands that fit Extra, that fit our
market, brands we believe in, we ride with, brands we can really support, add value to, develop and work in close partnership with. I guess we are kind of picky, but that’s a good thing. We’ve had quite a few approaches over the past season that we have opted to decline for lots of different reasons. All this said, we haven’t been resting on our laurels in this
regard and expect to have at least two brand additions to announce in the new year.
Extra UK has a number of P&A brands in the portfolio, including Topeak
www.bikebiz.com December 2022 | 31
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