INTERVIEW
ramp up to the same level as the rest of the industry. So in the two years of COVID, our business was steady without the overstocking issues. But Brexit had a much wider impact on us as we import most of our items directly from Europe, as there are few UK distributors for these. We’ve had large suppliers fall into liquidation. Keeping customer confidence when, essentially, that is your car or your van manufacturer that has gone into administration has been a challenge. Specialisation is great, but it can leave you exposed if you
the buying cycle can be up to 8-10 weeks from first enquiry to final purchase. It’s more considered. Very often multiple people need to use the bike, so it’s not a high-volume Item. Each customer needs more time to make a purchase. This changes the initial interaction from “sell the bike today”
to “plant the seeds to sell the bike in the coming months”. We run try-before-you-buy hire fleets at cheap rental rates for customers, and this lets them try living and using the bikes before they commit. Our servicing is very different as well. We understand that
it’s not necessarily an item you can do without. If you’re without the bike for an extended period, even for a day, that can cause big headaches for people. We are mechanic-heavy versus a lot of other retailers, and
they are front and centre at our locations. We aim to instil the confidence that if a customer has an issue, we are there to fix it and they talk directly to the mechanics who did the repair. We also offer call-out services and collections for cargo bike customers, as they are hard to transport for users if they are broken down.
Cargo bike retail spans both private family transport and commercial last-mile delivery. How is your business currently split between B2C and B2B, and where are you seeing the strongest growth? That’s an interesting one. What we see is the family side being much more dominant than the B2B side at the moment. Growth-wise, it comes and goes for both sectors. The families lead the businesses in the UK, certainly from outside of London. The UK has a misconception generally around what cargo bikes can be used for, and I think businesses need to understand that before we see widespread adoption. I still think families will be the dominant market for the UK. In the long term, I think we will start to see much more of the European split of it being 50/50.
How has your specialist focus helped shield Outspoken Cycles from wider industry pressures? In the short term, it did. The mid-term is more complicated. We weren’t hit with the immediate problem of bike supply as others experienced. The production for the cargo bikes didn’t
www.bikebiz.com
don’t have the additional resource or revenue to fall back on. The combination of the workshop and having a wider range of cargo bikes is the main thing that has kept us stable and allowed us to take advantage of the changing market.
And finally, what are the major goals for the business over the next 12 to 18 months? More of the same in short. We are continuing to expand; we have recently opened a new location in Norwich, which has been a success with the city embracing what cargo bikes offer. I’m sure this won’t be the last city we expand to. We are continuing to refine our offering to ensure that we
have a cargo bike that suits all use cases, from the builder to a single-child household. In the new year, we are starting to look more at the business cargo bike market and how we can help expand this market. ●
VISIT OUR WEBSITE WE HAVE 1000’S OF REPAIR SOLUTIONS
01484 665055
sales@thecycledivision.com
thecycledivision.com
November 2026 | 49
Workshoptastic!
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
