BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Apex Distribution is a new player in the UK bike market, having launched in 2020 to provide MTB brands to dealers.
Based just outside of Bedford, Apex was founded to support mountain bike workshop Plush Suspension, with the aim of providing dealers with brands that are strong in both online sales and in-store purchases.
Now in its third year, Apex has since increased its portfolio to four brands specific to the MTB market, most notably frame protection specialist DyedBro, which remains the biggest seller for the distributor.
Mat Clark from Apex told BikeBiz: “We started Apex in 2020 to support our service business Plush Suspension as we felt we had a great opportunity to combine our immense technical knowledge and pure passion for all things MTB with our understanding of modern bike retail and brand management.
“Our main goal is not just to bring the best MTB brands into the UK but also to provide our dealers with the tools needed for those brands to succeed in-store and online.
“We try to focus on quality rather than quantity and work with dealers that have a solid online presence as well as high-quality retail space and excellent workshop ability. “
The Apex portfolio now consists of Dyedbro frame protection, suspension manufacturer Ohlins, and cleaning product brand MountainFlow, which specialised in plant-based cleaners and lubes.
Apex has also just announced that Sensus grips will be joining the distributor, with pre-orders open now as stock is scheduled to become available in June.
Clark said: “Our current range of brands is small but we are growing and our focus for 2022-23 is simply to grow our relationships with some key MTB dealers in the UK and give them all the help they need to retail our brands effectively.
“Our biggest seller is DyedBro frame protection and clothing. It’s super easy to use, has an incredible price point for the quality and above all, they are just awesome people to deal with and we love it! With loads of designs and universal fit, it’s an awesome ‘spot buy’ product for shops that want something slightly different to the norm.
“Plush Suspension has been working closely with Ohlins since 2016 and we got pretty excited when we realised we could offer these products to our current Plush dealer base with good margin and exceptional technical support. Supply is now speeding up with fork production in full swing and we have a good stock of all Ohlins suspension products including the new RXF 38 fork and the TTX coil and air shocks.
“MountainFlow makes high-quality cleaners and lubes that are 100% plant-based so you can rest assured that all that cleaning foam flowing into the drain isn’t going to affect the environment and produce glow in the dark three-eyed fish! ”
