Shred MTB mag unveils growth plans

Mountain bike magazine Shred has revealed its expansion plans for 2012, including the formation of a new company, more frequent editions and a new appointee. 

After what Shred Limited called a tough, but ultimately successful, year of trading, the magazine is to split from its parent company and see the formation of new company Spike. Spike will handle all of the activities for Shred Magazine as well as Shred’s growing events and publicity activities.

Joining Shred founder Steve Toze is Simon Young, who has become a director of Spike. Young formerly held the position of general manager position at what is described as the UK’s top performing Specialized Concept Store.

"It’s great to be more directly involved with Shred," Young enthused. "As a passionate life-long mountain biker myself I am really keen on getting more people out and enjoying riding mountain bikes, and Shred will be a great tool for that, especially as we’ll be working in conjunction with a National Trust partnership for 2012. It’s not that often you get a chance to do your dream job, so this is a rare opportunity to help shape a magazine that truly reflects what inspires us to ride and also to provide some unique events of the kind we’d like to do ourselves."

Shred’s Steve Toze commented: "It’s been a tough couple of years for all magazine publishers with escalating production costs and the potential for ad revenues to dwindle. However, we’ve kept Shred true to its course and actually boosted sales. This period of growth for Shred is immensely exciting, we’ve had some amazing support from some of the biggest names in cycling so we are confident we can take this next step to fulfil the dream I had when I started Shred back in ’96."

Major structural changes at Shred will include a step up to bi-monthly editions, with more content and wider availability of the magazine through more independent bike dealers, events and trail centres nationwide.

Shredmagazine.com is to grow too, in order to support the magazine and enhancements in Shred’s iPhone and iPad Apps.