INTERVIEW
Some of the Extra Team
innovative internal team and from our supportive brand partners and owners. We didn’t make short-term panicked decisions; we remained well funded and focused on the medium to long-term picture - always. We reduced our stocks to normal levels, slowly and carefully, whilst maintaining brand equity, then set our sights on the future and the opportunities that presented themselves (or that we simply went for)! We are long-term believers in our sport and pastime; we knew the cycling business would bounce back, and we wanted to be left best placed for that recovery, albeit a little slower than we had all hoped for.
You’ve seen some exciting movement in your brand portfolio recently, including new distribution for brands like Bryton GPS and additions such as Coast Optics and INPEAK. Talk us through how your portfolio has evolved over the past few years? We are very particular; we don’t take on brands blindly. They must fit our market or have the potential to suit our riders and retailers. We must believe in them, as a brand, as people and as products. Much of our staff base is made up of brand and marketing people who ride, but at the same time, who have the right balance of experience and commercial understanding to make wise decisions about how we as a business act. To be clear, as a business, we don’t rely on or want to rely on ‘brand acquisition’ for growth; all our brands
www.bikebiz.com
have the potential to take market share and grow ‘organically’, many of which are doing so exponentially. We believe there is a sweet spot, and we are already close to it, with the right portfolio, the right number of brands, and a curated set of partnerships where all are still able to get the right level of attention for growth. There’s no doubt that we have made a lot of changes over the past three to four years, but the results have been positive for all our brand and retail partners.
We’ve seen Extra UK leaning into high-tech electronics and performance optics lately. Do these categories represent the next chapter of growth for the business as we move through 2026? Honestly, it’s not a deliberate move as a specific category target; it just came about that two brands that we respected and believed in were open to a new relationship together. Extra UK has long sold high-end enthusiast products within our portfolio, and yes, tech remains a growing area for sure; also, Bryton and INPEAK just logically fit into our portfolio. They are certainly part of what is driving our growth, but only alongside many of our longer-established relationships, which are experiencing considerable increased demand and market share, like Pirelli, MET, fizik and Topeak, to name just a few.
Last year, you sponsored the Mechanic of the Year award with Topeak, and you continue to support our Mechanic
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