COMMENT: “I’ve never had a customer choose to pay extra for a sustainable product”

Sustainability can be a thorny subject, but it’s one that we’ll be addressing more and more in the bike trade. Not least because companies in the cycling industry are trying to get to grips with making their product ranges more sustainable. There was a lot of evidence of this at this year’s Eurobike.

But amidst all that is the zinger CIN received from a UK bike shop while departing the Frankfurt Messe Showgrounds on Friday: “I’ve never had a customer choose to pay extra for a product which is sustainable.”

It’s food for thought and an entirely believable finding. Customers are often (usually?) value conscious.

“Is a punter happy to pay two quid extra for Fairtrade teabags, but is not yet at the point where they want to make that distinction in a bike shop?”

Yet can we ignore the fact that the Fairtrade label, for example, is selling nicely thank you very much? Because customers are prepared to pay extra if it means the grower or collector at the other end of the supply chain is getting a better deal? Or is a punter happy to pay two quid extra for Fairtrade teabags but is not yet at the point where they want to make that distinction in a bike shop – and pay a fiver more for a pannier bag that is made with x% recyclable materials? Maybe that’s one for the next CIN Market Data survey…

Sustainability comes in different forms too – there’s the blue chip corporate world where the expectation is that you have an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) policy and if you don’t you’ll be punished for it, either in investment opportunities or when you’re next trying to win business with that other big client who is obliged to choose suppliers also with an ESG policy. So, if you’re a big sized bike business that supplies or potentially supplies a big blue chip company then you’d damn well better be making some decent sustainable noises.

Talking of other forms of sustainability, there’s product longevity to consider too. A conversation CIN had with Silca boss Josh Poertner last year sticks in our collective minds – making the point that at some levels of the trade, obsolescence is virtually built into new products, with product quickly making way for faster, slicker, more efficient models in the next product cycle. That point came up again at Eurobike in a chat with Exposure Lights, where longevity is baked into the brand ethos, where a product is sold at the premium end but is an investment that will last for many years, with all the necessary serviceability and support that requires. Product longevity certainly seems to be a straightforward means to achieve greater sustainability.

The truth is that it’s easy to let your eyes roll at the mention of sustainability – especially when it seems to be more about marketing than something that is materially ecologically friendly. And, having thought about it, if customers in bike shops are not yet willing to part with an extra fiver to buy a more sustainable product then we’re going to have to change that. No, that’s not just something else to lay at the retailer’s door, but an industry challenge.

The food industry has its own sizeable sustainability challenges but has managed to convince customers to part with their precious extra money for Fairtrade and similarly labelled products. The cycling industry is going to have to do the same – and ensure that sustainability is much more than lip service. There’s irony in me writing these words while on the plane back to London City Airport. Just like there’s irony in the bike trade starting to use more AI based technology when that, reportedly, requires a lot more energy to perform.

Still, coming away from Eurobike 2024 where sustainability was a discussion point at a high proportion of CIN’s stand visits, the conversation isn’t about to go away. Sure, there is going to be greenwashing and in some cases a disconnect between the reality at the industry coal face and the publicised intentions of brands and importers, but there’s also honest and impressive progress being made that will continue to move things along positively for the cycling industry’s green credentials.