BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Notable non-payers of the market-boosting, cycle-promoting Bike Hub levy include Halfords and the Tandem Group, owner of the Dawes and Falcon marques.
Most other cycle companies, and magazines, pay either a one-off sum or a proportion of their turnover into the scheme. Bike shops pay into the scheme via suppliers.
Bike Hub contributors can be found here: http://www.ba-gb.com/index.php?ps=5&PHPSESSID=32b9777b9d86990db27543a2c3462421
The list includes Fisher Outdoor Leisure, Giant, Hot Wheels, Madison, Moulton, Pashley, Raleigh, Silverfish, Specialized, Trek, Universal, and Weldtite.
In its first full year, Bike Hub participants raised over £260,000.
"That is a significant achievement – especially for a hard-pressed industry as ours," said BA president Phillip Darnton.
Bike Hub is run on behalf of the supply and retail sides of the industry by the Bicycle Association and the Association of Cycle Traders.
The Department for Transport is a supporter of the levy scheme.
In a letter read out to Bicycle Association members at the orgaisation’s AGM on Wednesday, Chris Watts, head of the DfT’s cycling policy unit, said "Bike Hub has developed quite a fan club in DfT."
The levy scheme was created in order to show the government that the bicycle industry could help itself.
"Following [transport minister] John Spellar’s scepticism about the industry’s lack of involvement in promotional efforts on cycling, both Kim Howells and Charlotte Atkins have been delighted by the industry’s commitment to the scheme," said Watts.
"A large part of the challenge for the year ahead for Cycling England, government and partner organisations is to exploit the good work done to date. Much of that work has been inspired and assisted through Bike Hub."
Referring to bikeforall.net, Watts said: "We have a portal that is, to quote another Cycling England member, "excellent" – functional, versatile and attractive – and which can now form the reference point for the communications programme which we anticipate forming a substantial part of the Cycling England work plan.
The Bike Hub funded Bike It scheme, run by Sustrans, "appears capable of bringing a new cycling culture to schools, and we now need to take up the challenge of building its scale to best effect. And we have a new, broader base of support for Bike Week which should allow us to make better use of the vast numbers of local and national events in future.
"In short, Bike Hub is in danger of making the bicycle industry indispensable," said Watts.
