A Bath construction specialist is helping identify new markets for an award-winning cycle storage business after it was hit by Brexit red tape and the economic downturn.
Dan Grimshaw, pictured right, who lives in Hinton Charterhouse and owns London-based design and construction firm Beam Development, is mentoring entrepreneur Andrew Lang, whose business Cycloc is the UK market leader for design-led bicycle storage.
Brexit and the cost of living crisis have hit London-based Cycloc hard – but Andrew says talking to Dan has helped him realise there is a ready-made market for the product if he puts more focus on housebuilders, architects, and commercial property specialists.
The two were brought together under the Innovating for Growth mentoring programme run by the British Library.
Andrew, pictured below, who founded Cycloc in 2006, said: “As a company our whole range has been developed with a European aesthetic in mind. Sadly, trading with Europe has now become very difficult and expensive.
“And it’s not just about jumping through the hoops in terms of Brexit legislation, but also the expense of administering the additional activities required to continue to do business in Europe, such as setting up further warehouse locations and filing tax in the EU.
“All this resulted in the realisation we need to move our focus away from Europe as our principal market to other markets across the globe, such as the US, and to be more agile as to who is our ultimate customer.”
Dan, who has worked on premium residential projects for more than 15 years, says he believes selling Cycloc products via architects or developers, particularly volume developers, ‘has legs’.
“I can’t take too much credit for Andrew’s realisation; mentoring is about listening and asking some guiding questions and helping people think about the best way forward,” said Dan, himself an alumnus of the British Library programme.
“Andrew’s products are mainly designed to be inside a building, which means where the provision of cycle storage is part of the standards developers need to meet and will help them tick that particular box.
“If you’re building a block with 500 apartments, that’s going to mean a lot of cycle storage.”
As a result of the advice from Dan, who founded BEAM Development 12 years ago to deliver quality design and quality construction into high-end residential homes, Cycloc is now building an active strategy focussed on built-environment stakeholders as well as its existing direct customer market.
“There have always been a number of passive sales of our storage products where architects, property developers and interior designers have specified our units for their clients,” added Andrew.
“Dan had helped us reinforce our belief in our new strategy; we are now putting together a plan around actively targeting and expanding this area of our business.”
Cycloc is also in brand partnerships with iconic bike producer Pinarello across the UK, and internationally with fitness technology brand Wahoo, which uses its products in its new HQ in Atlanta, Georgia and Sports Science Centre in Boulder, Colorado.
The British Library has supported more than 540 ambitious London-based innovators, entrepreneurs and disruptors reach the next level through its Innovating for Growth programme since its launch in 2012.
