BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Remember early 1990s raised chainstays? Nishikis had them in spades! The brand petered out in the UK after the Japanese parent company sold the Nishiki name to a Finnish company and pan-European distribution deals broke down.
Jon Crayford has been importing baby equipment since the demise of Magna but has been planning a re-entry to the bicycle trade for some time. Looking through his collection of old business cards he found one for the German distributor of Nishiki and rang him to check on the UK distribution rights. There was no current importer so Crayford flew out to Germany to ink the deal.
Knowing full well theres a glut of bike brands on the market Crayford says his company will be offering unique marketing support to the 50 or so dealers hes seeking.
Im a great believer in direct marketing and well be offering our support in this area. Dont wait for customers to come to you, go out and get them. When I used to have a bike shop we would do a telesales call round to local companies to see if we could sell them bikes. Wed also do door-to-door knocking.
The Nishiki range has RRPs from £229 to £1300 and includes hybrids as well as MTBs.
Crayford doesnt feel there will be any residual carry over from the collapse of Magna.
In the UK attitudes to business failure are changing. I think people now recognise that most successful business people have had a failure in the past. It makes you stronger. You know where you went wrong and you make surte you dont make the same mistakes again. It was a steep learning curve.
Crayfords company Finistar Ltd. has two employees. Telesales, warehousing and other key functions are all out-sourced.
Finistar Ltd.
Cardway Business Park
Alsager
Cheshire
CH3 6PH
Tel: 01270 873 100
www.nishiki.com
(Nishiki.co.uk will be launched in September)
