OPINION


Maximising Margin: How Conversations 


By Simon Ford, Sales & Marketing Director, ABUS UK A


BUS UK’s Sales & Marketing Director, Simon Ford, outlines the case for abandoning the “lazy route” of


low-cost, predictable sales in favour of expert advice, thoughtful range planning, and innovative solutions. Three decades of visiting cycle shops and what has changed? There have been many popularity changes, through BMX, MTB, Hybrid, Road, e-Bike and Gravel, periods of popularity that will always ebb and flow, they are all bicycles and stocking what consumers want obviously makes sense. Remember the Fat Bike period? It’s Christmas as I write this, which takes my thinking back to days of hundreds of bicycles lined up in cycle shops, all pre-sold, awaiting collection from happy parents, each


wondering firstly, will it go in the car, then how they will wrap it, then can they hide such a large object from a keen, seasonally excited child. Although some bicycle sales do still take place specifically as Christmas presents, now an iPhone or Xbox perhaps tops a kid’s Christmas list. A call to a long-standing cycle shop owner confirmed my thoughts: two to


three hundred Christmas bikes a year “back in the day,” he tells me, but down to eighty units in 2015, 24 in 2020, and just eight in 2025.


Different times.


In-store, there have been changes to the proportion of sales between bicycle, workshop, and PACS. Pressure from online retail, ever-increasing operating costs, and falling footfall all bring challenges. The mix of products,


Before Helmet and Lock area


www.bikebiz.com


February 2026 | 43


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