BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Here are the releases (Steven Walsh should have been a journalist, theyre not half bad):
Release 1: Concepts Strong Growth Contimnues with 2nd New Factory
Concept Cycling Limited enjoyed record sales and profits in October but November has smashed this record by almost 50 %. Steven Walsh reports that he expects sales for the first 5 months of their financial year [August to August, Ed.] to top £15 million, and believes that the full year sales will be over £26 million to record another 30% growth this year.
Weve put together an incrediblly energetic and enthusiastic management team and our workforce are 100 % behind them. Weve moved our wheel-building operation into new premises and installed a third fully automatic wheel-building line. In early October we took over the factory premises and the workforce of Euro Cycles Limited plus a new 100 000 sq ft warehouse facility. The new factory gives us a further 400 bicycles per day output, which is necessary as we have not been able to keep up with dealers demand on our home-built product, reported Steve Walsh.
When asked if Concept was now the No 1 UK supplier of bicycles, Walsh said: Maybe, maybe not. Thats not our goal. We just want to give our customers what they want and our year 2001 ranges will be very focussed on doing just that.
Release 2: Concept Cycling to Launch New Accessories Range
December sees the launch of the long-awaited new range of products from Concept. Brain Dickson [thats one typo I had to leave in! Ed.], who is the Managing Director of Concepts accessories business, has been working on the new range for 6 months and is excited by its launch.
Brain [there it is again! Ed] has the full support of the main Concept Board of Directors and he is looking to strengthen both telesales and field sales personnel. Interested parties should contact Brain by fax 0161 727 7136.
Release 3: Concept to launch Viking in 1st 1/4 of 2001
The Vikings are coming back to the UK and they mean business. A range of 10 bicycles on aluminium frames with good equipment will be launched early next year.
They will be good, is all that could be prised out of a very tight-lipped Steve Walsh although he was very open about the market segment he was aiming to penetrate:
We are going after the Claud Butler type market and we will aim to offer a better quality level than our competitors in this sector. Obviously, our pricing will also be very competitive spec for spec.
The Viking brand is still well-known and its one of the oldest brand names in the history of UK cycling.
Dealers who are interested in acquiring the Viking agency for their area should contact Wayne Clarke by fax on 0161 727 8608.
