CI.N Podcast: 2022 in review with Dom Langan and Adrian Mawdsley

It’s time for the final CyclingIndustry.News Podcast of 2022 and with that we invite two UK bike industry leaders – Madison CEO, Dominic Langan and Raleigh UK’s Head of IBD Sales, Adrian Mawdsley – on board to count us into a new and hopefully prosperous New Year.

Our host Sean Lally kicks off with Dom, whose 33 year stint largely at the helm of one of the UK’s largest bike and motocross distributors gives a unique perspective on the fluctuation in trade patterns since the 2020 ‘bike spike’. He goes on to explain how the ripple effects are now bringing many businesses back down to earth.

On the mood in the marketplace seemingly turning south Dom offers: “It started to change from July 2021 after the ‘Boris Freedom Day’. We started to see a gradual decline in demand as people had other things to spend money on. The challenge we all had was knowing how quickly that decline would happen. We felt there had been a big cultural change in how people were behaving and their relationship with cycling. We knew it was a wave, but we thought it would be a gradual settling down of the market. Instead it seemed to pick up pace, some of that exacerbated by Russia invading Ukraine and various other political challenges in this country. You’ve had to work harder and smarter since, it’s how quickly you recognised that.”

Is the pandemic’s euphoria and subsequent drop off in demand to blame for a still unsettled market in 2022 and how might the bullwhip effect in the market finally settle, we ask?

“A lot of shops really enjoyed being very workshop orientated,” says Dom. “Now you’re back into the proper retail graft, so it’s just trying to get people back into that. As a distributor the working from home challenge was one where we personally needed to get everyone back to the top of their game.”

Many bike shops reported having wisely put some of the earnings from 2020 to good use, reinvesting the cash into building a more robust business on the back of a few tough years leading into the pandemic. So, how are Madison’s customers getting on since?

“The IBD is still performing better than other parts of the market and I think they had a good pandemic in that regard. The local bike shop and local businesses generally seemed to be quite central to what was going on in people’s lives, those places were still supporting their local communities. Some of that (goodwill) may wane as time goes on, but the good shops planned, they were wary about what they were ordering and in some cases they over ordered, everyone has, but I think the smarter ones were on it, cancelling when they needed to. No one knew how quickly the market would drop off and I think it went faster than most were anticipating.”

Dom wraps up by inviting the trade back to Icebike*, which is now split into a North and South series. To register your attendance, visit the site here.

The View from Raleigh

For our second half Adrian Mawdsley shares his view, which is fine tuned around the indie bike shop business.

Looking beyond 2022 into next year, Adrian assesses which, if any segments may continue to be in the ascendancy, as well as a broadening of demographics cycling.

He says “Early H1 next year we are not going to see all the issues disappear. That said, cycling is in an extremely positive place. Whether you’re riding for pleasure or for commuting, the perception of bikes is now positive. Up here in the North West of England ten years ago if you saw somebody riding you probably knew them, they’d be in a club. Nowadays if you go out locally you see gangs of men and women and girls, lots of people using electric bikes and bikes for commuting to work or to ride to university. I think cycling is in a super positive place.”

With demand currently looking flat leading into Christmas, when might some positive sentiment return, we ask?

“The issues we’re seeing now in terms of pressure on the economy and demand; I don’t see it suddenly changing overnight, but I think it will get better into H2. Hopefully we will see normalisation not back to peak Covid levels, but I think pre-Covid levels in demand for product. When you are getting the mainstream press say ‘don’t turn the heating on’, it does start making people question whether they are going to buy a new bike.”

To hear more from our duo, tune in below, or by hitting play in the homepage’s right hand column. Alternatively, to tune in to prior episodes with guests such as Rachael Burnside, Jay Townley and Adam Tranter, head here.