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False start

Earlier this week I picked up Marketing magazine only to discover an article with the title ‘Sales stuck in low gear’. The article is dealing with how, despite a concerted push by government and local governments to improve on the numbers cycling, sales figures in the bike industry are still ‘flat’ due to cyclists either dusting off their old machines or trying their hand with the second hand market. The irony in all of this is of course that whilst the evangelist of the cycling lobby are preaching about the positive effects cycling will have on the environment, there’s nothing particularly healthy about the amount of bikes being produced in China and India each year and so consumers (it seems) are in fact practicing something much more ecological than cycling itself; re-cycling. The stats that Marketing magazine draws on (in complete contradiction to the stats found on quickrelease.tv) are based on a report published by research group Mintel. A visit to Mintel’s site supplies an introduction to their findings (valued at £1500)

“there remains a strong public perception that cycling, at least on the road, is simply too dangerous. Despite benefiting from the encouragement and investment of government and advocacy groups, the market for bicycles is suffering at the hands of low levels of sporting participation in the UK in general, and this poses a massive barrier to increasing not only market sales but general levels of cycling in the UK.”

So it seems (if we can read into this as some sort of conclusion) that cycling as a sport in Britain hasn’t got the sort of profile needed in order to help encourage other cyclists. Despite the best efforts of London mayor Ken Livingston and the staging of the first leg of the Tour de France last year in Kent, cycling still hasn’t captures the imagination of the British public in the way that the industry or people like Cycle England would like it to.

However, in the side bar under ‘Analyst comment’, James McCombe (Analyst, Enlightenment) writes

‘In Britain the outlook for retailers and manufacturers of bicycles and cycling accessories is good. Each year since 2002, and extra 200,000 people have started cycling regularly, according to TGI. This trend seems likely to continue as pro-cycling initiatives gain traction, particularly in major cities’

He goes onto say however that whilst cycling has increased in the country, in contradiction to these figures, bike owner ship and consumption of bikes has gone down. This, McCombe goes onto say, may be based on a growing trend of committed cyclists spending more money on their bicycles (in excess of £350). His estimate is that the bicycle buying market has shifted into the ‘AB social grades and toward London and the South East’. He concludes by saying that the high end of the market may continue to support the manufacturers in the meantime whilst government initiatives catch up with the growing trend.

However, Mintel may or may not be aware that 2007 was one of the worst summers on record; a fact which deeply effects bike sales. Whether or not this has contributed substantially to slow growth in the industry is of course open to debate but it needs t0 be recognised as a major contributor in the face of this data.

The above graph has been re-produced courtesy of the magazine Marketing and represents (in their words) 638 adults aged 15 + who have bought a new bike in the past 12 months. The source is credited as being GB TGI, BMRB Q4 2007/Mintel