DISTRIBUTOR
From never manufacturing before, the company had to fast-track its way into it in a few short months in 2019. This included using its technical team and experienced hand wheel builder to go through everything from scratch. “We now have excellent production and ordering planning in place together with logistical successes working between two facilities,” said Elliot. “We have also been hit with Brexit and Covid-19
through this time which has brought extra challenges, whether that be sending to Northern Ireland or a hugely increased demand when we were still trying to find out our capacity levels in the early days. Working with machinery has been new to us too, but with the help of our fantastic suppliers in France we have overcome any minor niggles we have had.” On the impact of Covid on wheel building and the wider business, Elliot said: “It was massive for our distribution side, but for the wheel building side we were just settling down, just starting to get good stocks, and then before you knew it we just couldn’t build fast enough. Every wheel in the building sold out, the wheel builder had nothing to build because components weren’t coming in quick enough.
“The first two years of building wheels has been stop- start, it’s only been this last 12 months that we’ve started to get good, strong stocks on the shelf, good component levels, very few ‘out of stocks’.” The new building was also very timely as it has created
more room to store, meaning the company could build more with the new machinery. “The new building is rented and we couldn’t sign the lease quick enough,” added Elliot. “If it had gone on one more week, we would
have had a container arriving and no where to put it. We would have had to have put it off site.”
BRANDS IN THE BOB ELLIOT & CO PORTFOLIO
Alpina Adie
AlexRims Ass Magic AXA Beto Blub Cema Chiba Clarks
Continental ControlTech Crud DDK Ergotec FLR Funkier Impac KMC KOM
KranX KX Wheels Lotus Pure Qibbel Ravemen Safety Labs Schwalbe Smart Stronglight
Tange Seiki VK International VP Components Weldtite Wellgo Widek
Brand changes Bob Elliot & Co has ‘exciting’ plans for 2023 and beyond, said Elliot: “A fairly popular brand has left our portfolio recently but this has opened the door to a huge amount of options to help improve our range and further gain market share. In the coming months we will share this information through the trade. “We have recently been delighted to add Ass Magic chamois cream to our range as well as Blub lubes and cleaners to complement our other ranges of cleaning product and to replace an outgoing brand. We will continue to focus heavily on workshop and service for now, and the years ahead as we see this is an asset not only for the IBD but also for online platforms as well.” ●
www.bikebiz.com November 2022 | 31
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