No and not legal under EU law, although I don’t think it’s always a bad idea in a market with lots of competing brands or products but that’s a whole different matter.

A brand being careful who they supply and want to protect and promote their brand image and consumer experience and after sales etc could gain by only supplying dealers who can deliver all that which means they need to be able to make enough margin and turniver. If they are constantly undercut by a low staff, low margin retailer who earns the sale off the back of the work done by another hard working dealer purely because they are willing to well at a lower margin. They may think they can make enough money or even make none but build a brand they can sell to a venture capital outfit, all off the back of being the cheapest.

If a brand purely wants to sell as much as possible and to hell with the consequences then fine but if they care about their consumers and their brand image/value and future of the industry then they should care.

You might think that but I couldn’t possibly comment!

I am sure everything is completely above board. Having a new owner lined up on the basis of going into liquidation and run a massive black Friday sale of stock I don’t have at below cost sounds a good plan.

Haven’t posted on this site in years but I run my own bike shop not a million miles from a ubyk store and would like to make some points.

Nearly every bike shop is losing money these days and those that aren’t are making less than 2% net as is the case in most retail these days. Price is all conquering due to how easy the internet and smartphones make it to shop around especially when the product is the same wherever you buy it from.

Some people think they can build a retail or product brand and sell it on for a tidy sum a la rapha but as consumer retail spending has declined in recent years retailers with big debts and high overheads have been desperate to generate turnover to service these items and they know the score. Ubyks accounts have been rubbish from day one and the staff day to day know it’s not going well.

A lot of blame must sit with the suppliers who keep supplying retailers and dealers who continually discount, provide a sub par consumer experience and poor after sales as well as being naughty completing online transactions before shipping goods and probably doing the same with finance agreements most likely. Both illegal afaik.

I hope suppliers keep getting burnt by retailers going bust and learn to be more selective about who they supply and provide a good customer journey. Then good shops may be able to compete with every new startup undercutting them on price.

I know some ubyk staff have kept their jobs, sorry for those who lost wages but if new owner only bought the assets then there should be redundancy pay which is underwritten by the govt I believe.

I can see this scenario happening more and more. So many bike shops have closed in the last 18-24 months that for a failing shop or owner looking to retire the temptation to do this must be strong. You try and sell your business but as sales are declining and margins ever decreasing it isn’t generating anything above a salary so has little to no value as a business.

The business may have as much debt as the stock and assets are worth so a sale is not possible. Now a month of major online sales of a very high profile brand such as say hope or santa Cruz or Shimano at less than trade so cheaper than everyone by miles, some Google AdWords and Google shopping spend and maybe some Facebook and Instagram adverts could drive in several hundred orders averaging £500 or so, pay yourself the money and then just liquidate the business. More money than selling and literally walk away leaving liquidators to tidy up.

If a shop owner feels shafted by suppliers doing way cheaper pricing, drop shipping and all sorts to their big spending accounts like wiggle and ubyk etc why would they feel guilty shafting the same suppliers with a liquidation?

Being a great shop is not enough for success these days, consumers can take the experience and knowledge and demo facilities of a good shop and then buy anywhere that is cheapest as the products are usually identical and they infrequently do exactly this.

Brands and suppliers need to take more responsibility for who they supply and how they treat customers.

Opening longer hours and 7 days for customer convenience costs a whole kit more money in staff that most likely is not covered by the extra trade. Shops I know are busiest Mon to Fri duringn 9-5, I have known some to try later opening and found it was the quietest time as were Sundays.

Wiggle s figures aren’t that good hence why they had to buy crc to deliver growth. Their gross profit is about 22% and net profit about 1.5%. They do not have 31m distro mutable reserves either that is mostly retained profit which is mostly tied up in stock if you look at the balance sheet.

These other shops that appear to be thriving, I suggest you take a look at their accounts on companies house and see if any are making money as those I have looked at including some mentioned earlier in this threads such as primera are losing money atm.
Most retail these days is at best running on about 2% net profit margin, once you take into account rising rents and upwards pressure on wages from national living wage over the next few years most bike shops will be facing losing money. Many, many bike shops will be closing in the next few years. Sales of bikes and parts and accessories have always subsidised workshops so hourly rates will have to increase significantly to be the core of a sustainable business. Cycling is very seasonal so unless it is a heavy commuter area such as London or Brighton etc there won’t be enough turnover several months of the year to pay the bills. Many bikes are very cheap and parts cheap too so if Labour rates go too high in comparison people will just replace rather than repair.
We will have fewer shops, fewer clubs, fewer events and fewer cyclists.
We will have more small repair only businesses that are possibly seasonal or even part time so a reduction in convenience for many people.

The standard of repair work is often not good enough as the pay is so bad in the trade. Anyone decent with a brain and experience will leave the trade when they need to earn more I.e. they need to get their own house or start a family, then all that experience is lost.

Shops feel they cannot charge more than their local competitors even if they are better as people just look at the bottom line assuming the quality of work will be the same everywhere.

With the decline in the number of shops you can bet money that the mail order outfits will feel able to increase their margins as customers have nowhere local to go. Then they will reduce their range, introduce even more sub par own brand kit.

Because other wise the rant wouldn’t work!

Ahhh OK, sorry I’m not up to speed on how this forum works :wink:

The bike shop hasn’t handled this very well and certainly should ahve kept you in the loop but I do have a few queries:

1. You say the BOR cranks came with external cup BB? How is this ever going to fit a BB30 frame? The bearings in the cups will most likely be wrong. Is it possible the shop used the bearings form the external cups and had to fit them to the existing BB30 adaptor hence needing to enlarge the 24mm internal diameter to 30mm+ for your BB30 cranks?

2. When told the cranks won’t fit without spacers you have asked them to refit the old ones so you can race at the weekend but feel you shouldn’t have to pay for this extra labour even though it’s not their fault? I know they didn’t have BB30 spacers but many shops don’t keep spares for parts they never stock. Many people buy most of their kit mailorder these days so shops may only come across the need for spares once or twice a year at most.

3. Several posters state the bike should have been test ridden but if you haven’t taken in a complete bike and have asked for the calipers to be left loose and not setup then they can’t really do this can they?

As for bikes being more expensive than car servicing you guys all have very cheap cars with long service intervals. Just about any quality entry level tyre costs more than bike tyres, labour at garages are £55+VAT per hour or more with many main dealers being in excess of £100+VAt per hour.

I have a high performance sports car that I would say compares to a high performance MTB (rather than comparing a budget car to a high end bike). My tyres are £700+ for a set, brake pads are £220 for a set of good ones, discs are £300 all round. The car needs a minor service every 6k and major at £12k at a cost of £350 and £700 respectively.

A set of aftermarket Ohlins shocks are £2500 and need servicing every 12k at £600 for a set. How on earth is running a modern bike more than a car???

The Treks are longer this year than last, new lady in charge of the WSD program apparently.

How tall are you? What's your inside leg measurement?

Are my customers exciting? what a bizarre question. I would say they are a very accurate representation of people on the whole. Do they all pay full rrp, most but we have a loyalty scheme as does Tesco.

Can't say i get that many people in quoting internet/mailorder prices at all let alone enough to get fed up with them. I think people who are purely motivated by spending their time searching for the lowest price are not potential customers, at least in so far as I'd never make money selling to them so I don't try to.

Yes the internet has changed the face of retail and it's kinda exciting. Has it improved the world, many people would say no. I am not bothered in the least by mailorder and the internet competition, I don't try to compete with them on price because I can't, I compete on service because I can. To say all customers only ever buy based on price is very inaccurate, it's like saying that our only motivation in life is money.

Many people have LBS' which are poor on service so they think all LBS' are like that, other people have great LBS' so they think they're great and show them loyalty but expect the same in return.

The retail industry is the second biggst employer in the UK after the government so small shops closing due to the internet has no doubt had an impact on society and the face of our town centre's. It's changed for good but it does mean retailers on the High St have got to get better at what they do in order to survive and that is good for the consumer.

Thinking about it I saw an article on a business programme during the week on how small patisserie's in some parts of France are getting state handouts to keep them going because they have decided they are so intrinsically important in teeh fabric of their communities. If it goes that way we'll all be paying to support local businesses through our tax instead of our custom so we won't be saving money in the end.

I run a shop and never feel I'm ripping someone off at full rrp. Bike shops simply don't make that much money, if they could buy and sell in the quantity and from the channels major mail order places did then they could possibly come close to matching price but they can't because they are a 'local shop'.

The industry average net profit margin for bicycle retailers in the Uk and the U.S. is around 2% so not a lot of room to discount there I'm afraid.

Nowadays if you don't give very good service as a local shop then your days are limited I believe.

Not everyone is interested in knowledge and customer service and are only driven by price, that's fine, local shops don't exist to serve you so don't expect anything back from them. Must admit thought, everyone I've ever met who only ever bangs on about how cheap they can get things have been very dull people.

Those that believe supporting worthy local shops, good on you I feel the same way, as long as the service is good.

If there were hardly any small independent shops in any industry and only 2-3 big mailorder suppliers do you think they would still strive to deliver high service with no-one to match?