Evans buys IBD three miles from its warehouse

The store will re-open as a branch of Evans on 10th March and will be the eleventh store in the chain. Evans now employs 180 staff.

Gary Smith of Evans said the chain was "very much in expansion mode."

This could even be outside the South East England heartland of the chain.

"We’re not averse to buying businesses," Smith told BikeBiz.co.uk.

"If the right ones come on the market, that is."

Smith says that smaller dealers need not feel threatened by the aggressive expandion of the big, independent chains:

"It’s important for the smaller IBDs to succeed. There’s plenty of room for us all but, in time, those IBDs that haven’t moved with the times will be squeezed out of existence."

PROFILE OF EVANS:

http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/…/article.php?id=2361