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news
BarcelonaBromptonBig jump in sales and profits at Brompton
Folding bike maker Brompton has seen sales and profits soar after ramping up production to help met demand, much of it from overseas, and says a worldwide trend towards urbanisation will provide the basis for further growth.
Sales at the Brentford-based company rose 28 per cent to £27.2 million during the year to 31 March 20134, while pre-tax profits were up 42 per cent to £3.5 million.
Last month, Mayor of London Boris Johnson was pictured riding a Brompton while taking part in a mass bike ride in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The brand’s success in the Far East helped the company achieve growth of 40 per cent in sales outside the UK and Europe, reports the Financial Times. In total, exports make up 80 per cent of turnover.
The company’s managing director, William Butler-Adams, commented: “Historically, our biggest problem has been not being able to make enough bikes to meet demand.
“So in the past three years we’ve spent all our energies improving our manufacturing process.”
He said the Brompton Dock hire scheme that the company has rolled out at 40 railway stations across the UK helped introduce potential customers to the brand.
“It’s an opportunity for people to try a Brompton. Because liking our product is very counter-intuitive,” he explained.
“If you look at a Brompton, you won’t be impressed at first. It looks dodgy, All folded and with its funny little wheels.”
The company, which produces 45,000 bicycles annually, put a limit on supply to South Korea during 2013 because it was worried that its bikes were becoming viewed as a fashion accessory there.
Butler-Adams said that increasing urbanisation plus investment in cycling by city authorities around the world would provide the foundation for growth, with the company viewing its products not as bicycles, but as “transport solutions.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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18 comments
When I worked in London I used my Brompton to commute. Now I'm driving to/from Reading I keep it in the boot of my Golf so I'm never without a bike if an opportunity/need arises or if I fancy spinning into Reading town centre at lunchtime from this soulless charmless industrial estate.
I really wish I had bought a Brompton when I was commuting by train instead of the cheap folder I got.
If my circumstances change and I'm cycle/train commuting again I'd grab one without a moment's hesitation.
The only issue I have with Brompton is when I've looked at their vacancies over on Bike Biz, they seem to be paying peanuts for their staff - in London.
The main reason I'd want to buy something British made, like a Brompton, is that I'd know the person working was getting a decent income. But that's purely speculation from their job adverts.
The only issue I have with Brompton is when I've looked at their vacancies over on Bike Biz, they seem to be paying peanuts for their staff - in London.
The main reason I'd want to buy something British made, like a Brompton, is that I'd know the person working was getting a decent income. But that's purely speculation from their job adverts.
@oldridgeback
I spent years 5 years commuting in the 'wrong' direction from London to Esher.
Taking any bike was never a problem, but I found my bmx the most practical as on the evening return journey around 6.30pm the train could be busy and people would moan about the size of my MTB, whereas the bmx was much smaller.
my apologies for my grammatical errors @OldRidgeback
Half asleep when I wrote my comment!
I'm a big fan of Brompton as you could guess, and its fantastic to see a company running a successful domestic manufacturing operation.
Not a problem - I've keyed in comments when less than totally aware as well.
Curiously enough, I've started commuting by train with my BMX. I ride to the station, take it on the train with me, and then have it to ride at the other end. As I commute out of London I'm heading in the other direction from most of the other morning travellers, so I'm allowed to take a bike. The BMX is more practical for this trip and a lot easier to lug up and down stairs than my old MTB and it also takes up less space for the return trip home, when the train is a bit busier.
Brompton's are amazing. I have had mine for around six months and my road bike has barely got a look in. The ride is strange at first, but that goes after about five minutes. Be prepared for the constant comments and questions though!
I'm a bit glass half empty about bromps. They make me think about how bad our bikes-on-trains provision is. And how dear our housing is too, I suppose. I still want one, of course, but hate to see politicians bragging about the brompton success story. I want to shout at the telly, fix the trains before you tour the brompton factory, Cameron!
It isn't, not given the capacity issues for passengers on our trains - especially in the south east, where so many trains are running at the physical maximum length that can be accommodated in the stations and signalling sections whilst being as wide and tall as can fit through tunnels and bridges.
After all, the Dutch, during peak hours, don't have any provision for bikes-on-trains. At all.
And in typical Dutch can-do the railway company introduced the OV-Fiets scheme as the ideal workaround so you leave your bike at the station and grab an OV-Fiets bike at the other end. http://www.amsterdamtips.com/tips/ov-fiets-cycles.php
This is a great example of a quirky piece of superb British engineering and innovation being a world beater. And still made in west London !!
The ride takes about 5 mins to get used too and from then on its all good. Mine is like havig a bike in my pocket and I zip around London between meetings faster and happier than any taxi.
Just goes to show that the cream always rises. And when it comes to folding bikes Brompton is the gold top.
I think Rapha is just way to expensive. It is just for banker types who need to show they can afford it.
Oh wait.
Sorry.
"I've ran some London retail store workshops for the largest quality cycle retailer in the UK, and in my experience Brompton could be beaten in terms of quality of manufacturing and sheer durability, they also rode damn well!"
Couldn't be beaten?
And it should be either I ran or I've run.
I hear what you're saying with regard to quality. I've ridden my mate's Brompton a few times and I found it rather odd. I'm used to twitchy steering as I have a 20" BMX but the Brompton's odd, due to its longer wheelbase. Yes they are quirky.
It is odd, until one grows to depend less on other bike geometries and gets used to the quirkiness.
My first ride on a Brompton was when I rode my new one away from Condor on Gray's Inn Road (didn't have the patience for a test ride), but 13 years on it's now my main bike both locally and for work.
Regarding support, when the bike frame broke under me (the bottom tube tore away from the folding bracket), I was highly impressed when Condor sent the wreckage back to Brompton and it was returned bright and shiny and completely repaired, with many of the old and broken bits replaced with brand new components. And it didn't cost me a penny. The bike was about 11 years old then.
I've ran some London retail store workshops for the largest quality cycle retailer in the UK, and in my experience Brompton could be beaten in terms of quality of manufacturing and sheer durability, they also rode damn well!
We sold a number of more affordable, competing folding bike brands, and had nothing but trouble either at point of sale (poor manufacturing quality) or during initial ownership. A high proportion of these customers ended up receiving refunds, and paying more to get Brompton bikes.
Brompton are expensive, and look quirky (very "english") but are the result of many years of refinement, and as Brompton told me in the past "there is a reason we make the frame from steel".
Great to see Brompton growing, a friend works there as a brazer and said its extremely busy.
Apart from Senor Boris Bikes in Barcelona, the only other bike I saw lots of were Bromptons.
Wow! Taking on the far East with success in bike manufacture, wonderful.