FEATURE
PEOPLE THAT MAKE THE INDUSTRY: TIM BAXENDALE
In the first of a series focusing on the people who make the industry - from seasonal shop staff with fascinating experiences to the CEOs of our industry’s biggest brands and businesses - we sit down with Tim Baxendale, Decathlon UK cycle training coordinator, to explore his experience of life in the big, blue and white, French business.
Tim BAXENDALE: I’ve been at Decathlon for nearly nine years, having joined in 2016. In that time, I’ve worked a variety of jobs with a few different titles. I started as a sports adviser and progressed to department manager. In this role, I absorbed the workshop into my responsibilities. As a result, around 2020, I became a product trainer. In 2021, I became a training coordinator. Also, around that time, I led the bike-building protocols of the PDI project. I’ve had the opportunity to shape how we approach the PDI process in the UK, ensuring every bike meets the safety standards before reaching the customer. To have the ability to develop an app that digitalised the whole process so we can safety check in-store, and you’ve then got a digital copy of the PDI as well. The project has linked all that I’ve been leading since 2018.
You’ll have seen plenty of change in that time, I’m sure? Definitely. Look how much change we’ve seen in the cycling offer, with branding and market positioning over the past seven or so years. Critically, a range of price points
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remains a constant - we’re a business that’s all about making sport accessible.
With Barbara Martin Coppola joining the company as our new CEO in January of 2022, it’s visibly accelerated business, continually picking up pace. We’ve AG2R riding our Van Rysel bikes and finishing 6th in the UCI Team rankings. In Mountain Biking WC XC, we’ve Rockrider Ford Racing Team. High visibility performance sport, which showcases the Decathlon brand - it’s important. We have ambition, but critically, we’ve not forgotten our core reason for existing. Accessibility. Talking about cycling as a form of mobility, we have a pioneering partnership with e-bike motor business E2 Drives to develop the OWURU motor, and then you’ve our R500 electric longtail cargo bike, which can take two children and one adult or 170 kg of load on top of the bike’s weight. We’ll see more in this segment as the year unfolds. That’s part of why I went to the Btwin Village: Product
Training for the Future. Attending training at the Btwin Village also means connecting with so many amazing people who make the
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