BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Carradice of England produces traditional cycle luggage and exports it to 30 countries around the world. The company’s latest products, launched at Eurobike, include canvas-and-leather bags finished off with genuine Harris tweed. The traditional Scottish country fabric is known to be a favourite of the queen.
Carradice managing director David Chadwick met her majesty last month when he was presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the UK’s highest accolade for business success. The 85-year old company received the award for International Trade. This was in recognition of increasing export sales year on year by 67 percent for the last three years.
Carradice is a family-owned business that has been designing and manufacturing bicycle bags since 1929. The Lancashire company grew from a back-bedroom where Wilf Carradice made his first bags in the late 1920s.
Winners of The Queen’s Awards are invited to attend a special reception at Buckingham Palace, London. Chadwick said: “It was a surprise and an honour to meet the Queen.” He added: “We didn’t talk tweed.”
The tweedy products on display on the Carradice stand at Eurobike included the Barley saddle bag and the Chester frame bag, designed for carrying an iPad. The tweed coverings were originally produced as one-offs but such was the demand the products have been commercialized.
Carradice produces a co-branded collection of its shoulder bags for the Fred Perry “Laurel” shops in cities such as London and New York. “They will definitely love the tweed bags,” said Chadwick.
