"Survive until 2025... if we can get to the end of this year, we'll be okay": British bike manufacturers hoping to make it through industry woes

Just last month the bad news kept on coming for the UK bike industry as I-ride, the major distributor behind Orro Bikes, entered administration and all staff were asked to leave 'without September pay'. I-ride had distributed many major brands' products, including those of Continental and De Rosa, and had last year moved to a new multi-million pound facility in Sussex, but have become just the latest cycling business to disappear.

Since Covid this has been a familiar tale, numerous brands big and small succumbing to the challenging economic picture and more industry-specific supply chain and inventory woes. From the beleaguered retail behemoth Wiggle Chain Reaction that was ultimately bought and saved by Mike Ashley's Frasers Group to the loss of distributors such as Moore Large, 2pure and FLi, it has been a tough few years.

For those that have survived, unsurprisingly business has not exactly been booming. We recently revealed that Rapha's losses had doubled to £22.7m, the brand's seventh consecutive year in the red — while Evans Cycles also posted a £22.8m loss for the financial year ending April 2023, significantly worse than the £5.3m figure of the year before.

Widespread price-slashing has been spotted at almost all the major retailers in recent times, heavy discounting deployed to shift old stock.

> Is now the best time ever to buy a bike? What cycling industry turbulence and deep discounting could mean for you

For the smaller independent bike manufacturers, survival appears to be the name of the game for now. In January, Orange Bikes was put up for sale by administrators but continued trading after acquiring its frame manufacturing partner.

Mercian Cycles ceased trading in May and entered voluntary liquidation, but was saved by four local businessmen, while Planet X was last year sold and its future "secured" amid administration fears.

"Survive until 2025... if we can get to the end of this year, we'll be okay"

Now, speaking to the Financial Times this weekend, Moulton's technical director Dan Farrell said he was hoping his brand's distinct approach from larger industry players would see them through the uncertainty.

"A lot of the industry is working to a 'Survive until 25' mantra," he explained. "If we can get to the end of this year, we'll be okay. We have lots of things that we don't do in the same way the rest of the industry does."

Unlike some of the big brands aiming for maximum selling, Moulton sells a more modest 700 bikes a year, the premium price of those sales keeping them going and covering costs.

"Providing you're not thinking that you're going to sell millions of these things, you can charge a premium for it," he said. "So you can manufacture in what is a relatively expensive area.

"Moulton [the engineer and founder Alex Moulton who died in 2012] decided in the early 1980s that this was the way UK manufacturing was going," Farrell said. "He deliberately designed something that had a lot of work in it — you could see where your money was going."

Pearson Cycles co-owner Will Pearson also told the FT that it had become "more specialised". The brand has its Forge carbon endurance road bike (starting at £5,600) and its race-oriented Shift (starting at £5,350), as well as the On And On performance gravel bike and e-bikes for road and off-road.

"Most of our bikes are built exactly for customers and delivered directly to the customers if they're not coming directly to the shop," he said. "We realise that there's a definite demand for our bikes across the UK and abroad. If we can deliver that same value and customer care to those people who are outside our typical local catchment, it's very well received."

Dan Brown, Atherton Bikes' chief executive, said the heavy discounts seen across the industry had slowed business but insisted it was still "on quite an aggressive growth trajectory" and wants to sell into the "low to mid-thousands within two to three years" from the 600 bikes it is hoping to sell in 2024, double what it did last year.

Earlier this year the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry (CONEBI) told the bike industry to "survive until 2025", the cycling market report saying overstock issues "might be resolved" next year. The market intelligence agency Mintel has also suggested that the industry is "on the road to recovery".

However, concerning figures from the Bicycle Association published last year charted the industry's post-pandemic struggles, UK bike sales falling even further in the first half of 2023, that despite levels falling to a 20-year low in 2022.

Just last week, components giant Shimano revealed its sales are down 12 per cent in 2024 but suggested "strong interest in bicycles continued as a long-term trend" and inventories at retailers "started to show signs of progress".

The challenging post-Covid era for the bike industry has not just hit manufacturers, distributors and retailers, with numerous other cycling-related businesses disappearing in recent years.

Look mum no hands! announced the closure of its popular Old Street cycle café last year amid rising costs, the ongoing impact of Covid on hospitality businesses and a change in work patterns meaning a "significant reduction in turnover".

Events organiser Sportive HQ went into administration this year while, in August, Hotchillee cancelled all events and entered liquidation due to "ongoing financial challenges following Covid and Brexit referendum".