Can you believe we are turning ten in 2023? It seems like just yesterday we were riding around Swinley Forest dreaming up ideas about what we’d want our brand to become. We’ve learned a lot since we hatched, and have been laying the foundations to share our rider focussed philosophy face-to-face for a while now.
March 2022 saw the official opening of our first proper retail space and showroom at our HQ in Eversley, Hampshire. We looked at what we had created in our relationship with Bike Bothy Pitfichie in Scotland and worked on how we could replicate that to take our award-winning online customer service to the next level. A new look real-life face-to-face retail experience was the solution.
Easter saw the opening of our Ride Hamsterley store in the North East of England. This humble facility is at our local riding spot – just a stone’s throw away from our Consett factory and provides sales, support and servicing in the heart of Hamsterley Forest. With products ranging from trailside essentials and components to helmets and clothing, but of course, the real beauty of our expanding network of trailhead bike shops is that you can demo our bikes on some of the UK’s best trails and then sit down to spec your dream bike component-by-component for no more money than an “off-the-shelf” offering from a mainstream brand.
We have continued to grow our relationship with Bike Bothy Pitfichie in Aberdeenshire which led to our first joint venture and the launch of Bike Bothy Laggan in Easter – further aligning our businesses which we see an integral part of our expanding network of trailhead demo centres.
Bike Bothy owner, Clark Sutherland, clearly excels in retail environments and embodies our ethos of putting the rider first. He started the year owning the only business we dealt with directly and finishes the year as Bird’s freshest employee as our Head of Retail. Here’s what Clark says about it all.
“From a turbulent time in the oil and gas industry to new beginnings as a self-employed mobile bike mechanic I have somehow ended up as Head of Retail for one of the bike industry’s rising stars – Bird Cycleworks – HOW ON EARTH?”
“Well let’s start at the start, born in 1986 on a farm in rural Aberdeenshire to avid ski instructors I was always destined to work in the elements – it just took 30 years for me to realise that was the career I needed to keep me motivated and performing. Until then I was an entirely average employee at best – always progressing within the organisations I worked for – but never really applying myself (or really being that passionate about it).”
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Nothing but good things to say about Bird’s customer service and of course the unbeatable value for money |
“To cut a 36-year-old story short, in 2017 I was looking to set up a small bike business, working from home, carrying out mobile repairs and I really wanted to offer Bird demo bikes which was something Bird was known for doing but had no presence in Scotland. I initiated the relationship with Bird by contacting Ben, who I knew of through my good friend and neighbour Chris. He had nothing but good things to say about Bird’s customer service and of course the unbeatable value for money (seeing as he’s a tight farmer – I thought THESE GUYS MUST BE GOOD!). Fast forward 5 years and here we are, I’ve been all over the country working at events alongside Bird, attending races with and without a number board (we’ve even had some good results along the way), running demos, providing customer service support, testing prototypes and the very glamourous role of ‘labelling boxes in the new warehouse’.”
“Our businesses have grown together over the last 5 years and I guess subconsciously we’ve worked towards this point I guess. Ben and the team at Bird have been continually supportive of my ideas and how our shop should work and of course in April we opened ‘Bike Bothy Laggan’ together. The opening of Laggan lead to Ben and I having a conversation about our Pitfichie store (Bike Bothy Pitfichie) becoming jointly owned between us with the aim of taking me on full time to look after all things retail’, along with athlete support, having an input to events, marketing, bikes and much more.”
“Now that brings us to the present day – so where do we see the future of our business? It’s safe to say that the industry is constantly changing – we’ve seen huge highs and we are facing potentially deep lows as the market normalises itself post-pandemic. For us to stay buoyant we have to be dynamic – which as a small manufacturer, with low overheads and a flexible team we are in a great position to do.”
“We will bolster our retail offering across our 4 sites, making us the manufacturer that will not only sell you the best bike in each price bracket but the manufacturer that can also service, maintain, upgrade and renew your bike as and when required. Also for the first time, we have started putting ‘stock bikes’ on our shop floors – whereas previously we built to order – which comes with a lead time. Previously with no ‘ride away today’ bikes we have maybe missed out on a bit of the market that has the desire to walk into a shop, choose their new bike and ride it the same day. The beauty of this is that we will still continue to offer the same great direct sales price and of course our award-winning customer service, but faster. We’ve always had a sticking point with going into retail as we didn’t want our bikes to be sold through just anyone – nor did we want to have to bump the prices up 30% to allow a dealer margin – we had to remain the best value money could buy while retaining that well-known customer service that first drove me to visit Ben back in 2017.”
Bird co-founder, Ben Pinnick adds:
“Bringing Clark into the team as Head to Retail is a really important step for us. We’re 100% confident that once a potential customer has ridden one of our bikes we’ll be their preferred option. Getting bums on seats in these trailhead locations is key and Clark brings a wealth of knowledge to ensure our experiences are aligned across all our locations.”
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Getting bums on seats in trailhead locations is key |
“Expect to see an increased presence at events throughout the UK too; whether that’s races, demo events or bike festivals – the chances are we’ll see you there.”
“We look forward to seeing you in 2023. Whether that’s at an event, a race or at one of our four locations – come and get immersed in the award-winning Bird Cycleworks customer service experience.”
