BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

Five Mongoose BMXers will be touring the UK in March, including a stint at Bike 2002 at the NEC as well as flying visits to skateparks and selected IBDs.

Here are two keenies seeking what Americans call internships and Brits call work placements. No doubt bike supply companies are inundated with such requests but these two enthusiasts have shown initiative by widening their searches and advertising themselves industry-wide. However, James Hawkins believes it will be hard to offer his engineering talents to manufacturers in the UK because there are now so few of them. Should he therefore seek work in America?

In a pre-Christmas newsletter, Orbit Cycles owner Simon Gershon revealed the bike maker and trailer distributor had seen sales growth in 2001. It was a topsy-turvey year, though: Orbit benefitted from off-roaders switching onto touring and road bikes during the FMD epidemic but the company lost tandem sales due to FMD hitting hire centres

On the BBC TV news this morning, a journalist bought a CD from HMV, Oxford Street, London. She bought it with Euro notes. The HMV till coped with the Euro transaction. Ah, but how will a small independent retailer cope, asked the presenter...

This was reported in the Sunday Telegraph. A Boots spokesman declined to comment but it's long been known that Boots would divest itself of the cars-and-bikes accessory seller if an attractive offer came along