Bike shop gearing up for national expansion
A Wairarapa retailer is taking his business up a gear with plans to franchise his lifestyle bicycle store.
Blackwell & Sons opened in Greytown in September 2015, and prides itself on selling traditional hand-built bicycles and tricycles made by Pashley Cycles in the small English town of Stratfordupon-Avon.
Pashley Cycles is Britain’s most exclusive and oldest cycle manufacturer, and Blackwell & Sons is the only official New Zealand supplier of them.
Blackwell & Sons owner Adam Blackwell said the decision to franchise the business was inspired by interest from around the country – people wanted to ‘‘see, touch, ride, and sometimes sniff our Pashley bicycles’’.
‘‘So we are taking the product to where our markets are, and at the same time reinventing the retail category for lifestyle cycling.’’
‘‘Some of our international customers have described our little Greytown emporium as the most beautiful bicycle shop in the world,’’ Blackwell said.
‘‘That’s something worth sharing with customers everywhere.’’
Blackwell would start actively looking for the right franchisees at the beginning of next year, with a target of having new stores opening in spring 2018.
‘‘It will be the perfect business for a couple who love high-quality experiential retail and beautifully designed products.’’
He decided to open a bicycle shop because he could see a shift away from a disposable culture to one that valued enduring quality.
‘‘[So] items you can restore and pass on, not throw away … It’s nice to offer a hand-crafted product that will last for generations and always be a classic.’’
Deciding how to grow the business had been one of the biggest challenges.
‘‘I think the single biggest challenge in NZ for any single-store retailer is scale.
‘‘That is why we are franchising.
‘‘Despite our fast population growth as a country, we are still relatively lean on people numbers compared to most other developed countries so our potential market is very small.
‘‘For a single store, it is a challenge to have a big enough market to sell to.’’
Despite this, business was ‘‘booming’’, with customers from Auckland, Christchurch, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki and Wellington, as well as Wairarapa, Blackwell said.
"It's nice to offer a hand-crafted product that will last for generations." Blackwell & Sons owner Adam Blackwell