BIG INTERVIEW
“When we started 23 years ago, a lot of suppliers were independent. Now there’s not as many suppliers out there. The business has gone through tough times since 1946 and Paul knows the businesses that supported them. Even now those are the businesses you want to keep supporting, the suppliers that are understanding if you have difficult times.”
The future Here at BikeBiz we’ve routinely been reporting on the challenges facing the bike industry, from component shortages during Covid to the sudden drop off in sales post-pandemic and the resulting overstocking. But how does it look from the shop floor? “It’s still tough,” said Sandra.
“We’re still recovering because people change their shopping habits. A lot of customers who have been cycling for a long time have hung up their wheels because they’ve got out of the habit. A lot of people bought a bike during the pandemic, but once the traffic got back to normal it’s tough to keep it up. “One thing I noticed this time, was when petrol prices increased phenomenally like they did, normally in the past we’ve had an influx of people coming in and looking for bicycles to buy because it’s too expensive to get the car on the road, they want to commute to work, but that didn’t happen this time.” Sandra believed that this could in part be due to the
spike in bike sales during the pandemic - those potential new customers inspired to cycling by the cost of living crisis may have already bought their new bikes in 2020 or 2021 when lockdown restrictions were at their height. Pennine Cycles stocks a variety of performance brands, particularly those specialising in the road market, from Fizik, Sidi, Selle Italia, Time frames and pedals, 100%, and Le Col club clothing, alongside the Pennine brand of bikes - Yorkshire handmade steel frames, custom built for each customer.
30 | February 2023
The Pennine team is also a small unit - five altogether, including Paul and Sandra, and their daughter who handles the social media and some of the accounts. So what next for Pennine? “Keeping our heads above water,” said Sandra. “Keep
promoting, deciding whether we’ll host a bike race again, and start doing some of the evening workshops again, particularly on nutrition and health, as well as cleaning your bike. “Getting our name out there [is a priority], because you can’t rest on your laurels.” ●
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