BRANDS
market-leading bikes in all MTB categories, an incredible UK team, non-stop marketing activity and, unlike many brands, we continued to develop and release truly new product. As such, we were confident that if we just trusted these strengths and continued supporting the dealers, we’d continue to offer value and remain relevant to our customers. We also knew that with all of these assets we would be well placed to benefit as the industry picked up. Something I’m happy to say has proven to be the case – and as the winter finally fades away – we are picking up new dealers weekly, enjoying great sales and strengthening our relationships with our dealers who represent some of the very best MTB shops in the UK.
What have been the biggest opportunities and challenges? Interestingly, other brands and their actions have represented a lot of the challenges and opportunities. We worked hard to not overstock ourselves or our dealers in the wake of Covid, but with other brands not being in the same position the industry saw panic discounting at unprecedented levels. The desperation to clear so much stock from such big
players unfortunately causes ripples across the entire market. As a result, some challenges were created for brands like Mondraker when models equivalent to ours are willingly being sold at a loss. On the flip side, the unpredictable actions of those brands that were in such turmoil actually enabled us to work even closer and more mutually beneficially with the UK dealers who were looking for more profitable and consistent business. This became obvious with the continued growth of
e-MTB’s, a segment we have always been strong in, where we have forged amazing relationships with dealers and truly taken market share from some of the ‘old guard’ of brands.
How is Mondraker supporting its UK dealers? It would be easy to rattle off a list off our dealer margin, marketing campaigns, customer services team, etc, etc. But the truth is all brands offer these things, or at least claim to. What we do best is build real partnerships. For us, like so many of our dealers, selling bikes is not just transactional. We like to build a genuine relationship with our dealers and we try to always have a true understanding of their needs and how we can help to deliver them. In turn, we always find ourselves humbled and honoured that these dealers, and end- users, give us such great support and passion. Another point of difference that provides great benefit to the dealers is our open and approachable nature with end- users. We only supply bikes via the dealer base, but we are 100% happy to assist consumers directly via email, our social media channels but also via face-to-face interactions at events, races and our Mondraker Owners Club rides that we organise. It’s really great to track those interactions from a muddy field at a race, to the dealer base and watch them turn into sales.
What’s coming up for Mondraker? Growth. We have been consistently growing our market share since our move to a dealer-direct model three years ago. With even greater marketing and constant new product development, we know this is only going to continue. We also recognise that the retail landscape is changing. Brands are buying retailers, shops are buying other shops, huge conglomerates are moving into the bicycle industry, global entities are building catalogues of brands and own- brand stores.
With all that in mind, it’s certainly a tumultuous trading space right now but ultimately, at Mondraker, we feel like it all points to the fact that truly independent retailers and truly independent brands, like us, have never been more important to each other. We look forward to developing these opportunities through the rest of 2024 and beyond.
44 | June 2024
www.bikebiz.com
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