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Boris Bikes to turn red? Santander reportedly set to sponsor London's cycle hire scheme

Spanish bank has reportedly edged out Coca-Cola with £50m seven-year bid

Boris Johnson may be a true blue Tory, but the bikes nicknamed after him are set to turn red, with Santander and Coca-Cola vying to replace Barclays as the new sponsor of London’s Cycle Hire Scheme – with the Spanish bank reportedly favourite to win the battle.

According to Sky News, Santander will be named the new sponsor after seeing off Coca-Cola’s challenge in what has become a two-horse race in recent days, although no contract has yet been signed.

The financial institution, which established a UK presence through the acquisition of Abbey National in 2004 and later added Alliance & Leicester and the branch network and savings business of Bradford & Bingley, will reportedly pay as much as £7.5 million annually for the seven years of the deal, with total investment of around £50 million.

That’s £2 million a year more than the £5.5 million TfL was seeking when it announced it was putting the scheme out to tender last June, when it said that any new partner would be involved in the future development of the initiative.

TfL's director of commercial development, Graeme Craig, said: "We are currently going through the final stages of the contractual process to appoint the new sponsor of London’s Cycle Hire scheme, and will announce it in due course.

"We’re at a really exciting point in the evolution of Cycle Hire, including record numbers of users in 2014.

"The new sponsor will have the exceptional opportunity to be entwined within the fabric of London and help us deliver the scheme further to get even more people on to two wheels."

Recently, Coca-Cola signed a deal with tourist attraction and theme park operator Merlin Entertainment Group to sponsor the London Eye on the South Bank.

In the UK, Santander brand ambassadors include golfer Rory McIlroy and Olympic heptathlon champion, Jessica Ennis.

It is also a sponsor of both the Ferrari and McLaren Formula 1 teams. The latter deal was due to end in 2010, but late in 2009 the bank decided to renew the sponsorship after it found that its backing of the Surrey-based team had seen its brand awareness in the UK jump from 20 per cent to 82 per cent.

TfL began its search for a new sponsor after Barclays said in late 2013 that its sponsorship of the scheme would expire during 2015, despite Mr Johnson saying four years ago that it had been extended until 2018.

The bank was criticised over issues such as using a commercial confidentiality clause in the contract with TfL to block Freedom of Information requests, and being able to claw back money when usage targets weren’t met.

It is understood that neither of those will feature in any new contract, and it has been noticeable in recent months that TfL has all but stopped using the Barclays name in press releases about the scheme, which last year enjoyed record levels of use.

As the picture above shows, there’s already been a red Boris Bike, here modelled by Martin Keown,

The former Arsenal and England defender joined former rivals for a photoshoot in 2012 when bikes were painted in the colours of London Premier League football clubs to help promote the scheme.

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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9 comments

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oldpro | 9 years ago
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Apart from perhaps one of the London tipper truck firms, I cannot think of a less appropriate sponsor for a the London cycle scheme than Coca Cola. A brand associated with dental decay and obesity has no place being linked to such a scheme. It p****s me off that it has been able to promote itself for so long via the Tour - what a joke. Bit like Mars sponsoring the England football team. Mind you, maybe that's why they are so bloody useless, they've been eating too much of the sponsor's product. Anyway, if there's a choice, Santander definitely gets my vote. Let's paint the town red!

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jova54 replied to oldpro | 9 years ago
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oldpro wrote:

Apart from perhaps one of the London tipper truck firms, I cannot think of a less appropriate sponsor for a the London cycle scheme than Coca Cola.......

Oh, I can; Addison Lee  4

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LondonDynaslow replied to oldpro | 9 years ago
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oldpro wrote:

Apart from perhaps one of the London tipper truck firms, I cannot think of a less appropriate sponsor for a the London cycle scheme than Coca Cola. A brand associated with dental decay and obesity has no place being linked to such a scheme. It p****s me off that it has been able to promote itself for so long via the Tour - what a joke. Bit like Mars sponsoring the England football team. Mind you, maybe that's why they are so bloody useless, they've been eating too much of the sponsor's product. Anyway, if there's a choice, Santander definitely gets my vote. Let's paint the town red!

Those red Coke bidons were cool though!

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LondonDynaslow | 9 years ago
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Does this mean the superhighways will now be painted red? That's a much safer colour...

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bikebot replied to LondonDynaslow | 9 years ago
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deblemund wrote:

Does this mean the superhighways will now be painted red? That's a much safer colour...

The new segregated sections won't be painted at all! They'll just look like road, which might do a better job of keeping pedestrians out. I'm actually not sure if this deal covers the routes, in every report it's only the bikes that get mentioned.

The original deal was for the routes as well, they were officially the "Barclays Cycle Superhighways". But they weren't branded in any way apart from the colour, which may well have been a coincidence. Red was already taken for the buses, and green was (and is still) used for normal cycle routes.

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congokid replied to LondonDynaslow | 9 years ago
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deblemund wrote:

Does this mean the superhighways will now be painted red? That's a much safer colour...

The blood stains will be much harder to spot...

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congokid replied to LondonDynaslow | 9 years ago
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deblemund wrote:

Does this mean the superhighways will now be painted red? That's a much safer colour...

The blood stains will be much harder to spot...

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Rich71 | 9 years ago
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'The bank was criticised over issues such as using a commercial confidentiality clause in the contract with TfL to block Freedom of Information requests, and being able to claw back money when usage targets weren’t met.'

Typical fraudulent corrupt thieving fucking scumbag behaviour then that has received little punishment for its embezzlement racket and interest libor rate fixing
Billions of pounds stolen and defrauded and yet these scum are still in business instead of serving lengthy jail sentences
im not suprised they block FOI requests,the bastards have got plenty to keep quiet about
we really are being shafted by the ruling establishment on a daily basis and yet we offer little resistance to these utter cnts of humanity

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mrmo | 9 years ago
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did barclays actually pay any money in the end?

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