BIG INTERVIEW
batteries in their workshops - which is obviously not ideal. “And some of them don’t know what they need to do with the batteries at the moment.
“They might phone one of their suppliers, and that supplier will then have to go and collect that single battery from that retailer, probably at great cost.”
Funding and engagement For any scheme like this to succeed it requires buy-in from all stakeholders in the industry.
Brands, aka the Producers, retailers and consumers all need
to be pulling in the same direction. A crucial contributor to its success will be funding. Consumers should not be expected to foot the bill and neither should retailers - especially at a time when they face significant challenges in other areas. “There will be no charge for retailers to participate,” said
Holt.
“They do have costs in helping administer this programme as they’ve got to store the batteries, talk to the customers, make the calls to ERP etc.” “The way the funding works will mirror what happens in other markets. It’s the Producers who fund a programme like this.”
According to Holt, the Producers are already incurring costs because they’re dealing in small numbers and it’s quite expensive for them to do this. “They’ve got to go and find a supplier like ERP - which we’ve done on behalf of the whole sector,” explained Holt. “Producers are saying to us ‘this is great, because I haven’t got time to go and procure a service like this’. “We’re giving economies of scale and setting it up so that in the future when we’ve got 1,000s of batteries that are going to need to be collected, we’ve got an efficient national programme that does that.
“It’s one of those rare things where the retailer’s are saying
‘yes, please’. The suppliers are saying ‘yes, please’. And we’ve got a partner in ERP and the Bicycle Association where we are really confident in how successful this programme will be.”
When the BA spoke to trade associations in other markets, one of the main questions was ‘what are the key things that ensure the success and longevity of this programme?’ “The one thing that came through with all of them was
‘extensive Producer engagement’,” said Holt. “When we look at the 30 Producers that we’re talking to, we think that they account for 90% of the total electric bike volume in what we call a specialist sector. That’s higher than any of the other trade associations that we spoke to. “So we’re very, very confident that this programme will be a success for that measure, alone.”
Looking ahead With the trial underway and demand for this type of scheme increasing daily, plans are already afoot for the BA to expand this as quickly as it can. “We will ask for expressions from any retailer in the UK
to help us form this national collection network before Christmas,” said Holt. “Once we’ve got our first group of retailers, we’ll begin the process of setting them up as a collection point. “Drum deliveries and first collections will then be in Q1 and Q2 of next year.”
What the BA doesn’t know yet is how big the collection network will be. This is something Holt and his colleagues are particularly interested to find out about. “Germany gives us an indication as there are 2,800
bike shops and 1,800 of them are in the battery collection network,” he said.
“So we think, over time, the network might be 1,000 to 1,200 bike shops in the UK. In year one, maybe 250 to 500 and then it will grow over time.”
Bosch is one of the Producers already on board
www.bikebiz.com
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