BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Cornwall-based distributor Silverfish UK has today announced a record year for sales on the back of October being the busiest month in the company’s sixteen-year history.
With a year-on-year growth of 23%, MD Darren Mabbott has also told BikeBiz that his company is growing for 2015 with new lines, an expanded marketing team and larger premises.
“March, April, June and October were the biggest months in our history with October topping the chart with sales of £1.23 million. Race Face sales increased by a staggering 73% whilst Mondraker continued its impressive growth in the UK with a 69% increase in sales year-on-year.”
2014 has also seen Silverfish expand into the European market with its distribution business in Germany for Yeti, THE, Supacaz, Cove and Sock Guy. Now, closer to home and following on from this success, Mabbott says that 2015 will see an expansion of operations in the UK too.
“On the back of us adding Easton, Onza, Supacaz and the impressive Ritte road and CX bike range this year, 2015 will see us add another big new brand in January and expand into larger warehouse premises shortly afterwards.
“Of course we will continue to develop our established brands such as Race Face, Mondraker, EVOC, Formula, e13 and Yeti too.
“We will be building on the huge success of Mondraker in the UK where we were delighted to see the Foxy win Trail Bike of the Year in the summer.
“We will also continue to develop the iconic Yeti brand in the UK. The new ASRc, SB5c and SB6c will be a focus with the latter this month described in What Mountain Bike magazine as being the closest thing to the Holy Grail of all round speed in the current mountain bike market.”
To help in this ongoing promotion of the company’s brands and to help support retailers, Silverfish recently announced the expansion of its in-house marketing team. This expansion, says Mabbott, will result in some major marketing plans being put in place across 2015 to help drive footfall through retailer doors.
“With over twenty high quality road and mountain bike brands now available from Silverfish, we have recognised the need to invest in our team to help us deliver the very best service to our customers and to the brands we represent.
“We will be promoting our brands heavily to the retailers’ marketplace and help consumers understand our brands and where to buy them.
“Please come along to see us at Core Bike, meet the team and let us explain how we can help your shop to grow in 2015 and beyond."
