Ireland’s largest eBike retailer, GreenAer, gives market assessment
A leading presence in the Irish electric bike market, GreenAer has kept agile in the face of shifting market momentum. Founder Olivier Vander Elst shares with CI.N an expansion plan that will take the business nationwide…
It’s already 14 years since Greenaer founder Olivier Vander Elst bought his Reva G-Wizz, described by car mags at the time as among the worst cars ever made. Few took into account the reasoning for this quirky vehicle, that sat as an outlier to the bulk of cars featuring at the time, most of which were part of the trend of progressive creep in size that makes modern cars a nightmare to navigate tight city streets and park.
Olivier soon went further, longing for predictable trip times. Having started out wishing to be part of the change in the personal transport world, he and his wife doubled down on the idea that smaller vehicles are, more often than not, efficient vehicles. “We morphed on the back of that experience and decided to start an eBike specialist business,” he told CI.N, while outside one of many electric bike halls now dominating the Eurobike show.
“Ireland is notably car centric with bad public transport, so in 2010 we pivoted our business toward eBikes as Greenaer Mobility, shortly after buying our first Bakfiets cargo bike. It was very thought provoking and we saw the potential very quickly. It is not our game to look over our shoulder, so we carved our own track, believing these vehicles to have the potential to change the landscape for moving people and goods. Here we are much later and they’re playing a huge role in tomorrow’s transport movement,” says Olivier, giving a sense that the gamble on pioneering the product has now paid dividends.
The big breakthrough in Ireland, in Greenaer’s view, came in 2019 when Ireland’s An Post took a fleet of 150 rearloaded Radkutsche cargo bikes from the specialist as part of a broader electrification of fleets. As a result of the commitment, the postal service is believed to have become Europe’s first to reach ‘Net Zero’ in its operations. Submitting a tender with bikes from Urban Arrow, alongside the winning vehicle, Greenaer seized the moment and, as a result, now has bikes out in Ireland’s main cities. Bikes that require ongoing servicing by a specialist and one able to feed back toward the manufacturer as the market develops.
“We’ve learned from their rider training and ongoing use the type of abuse these bikes get and thus been able to improve our knowledge over time. We send staff out that are dedicated to repair of these bikes and the feedback shapes what we can tell Radkutsche. Even this ten-year-old model remains able to be refined on the back of real-world use. We found that the Irish weather was an early issue. Water ingress was a huge issue, but now a resolved one. There are some things you can’t account for, like rogue tuning of the bikes, that’s out of our control. Working with public services can be interesting.”
The welcome trend noted by many eBike retailers to sell multiple bikes in one hit, in particular to business customers but also to families, has spurred Greenaer onwards and at the present time the business is fundraising to get the next leg up. At the present time the business is 20 staff strong, but is recruiting with urgency to meet growth demands.
Olivier says “We have a service hub in Dublin city centre, purely for the eBikes we sell, plus cargo, that is headquartered in Sandyford. There’s also a large 500 square metre store alongside and another in Mullingar, plus one in Cork too. Our view is to expand both in Dublin to cover north side and also west side in Galway. With a long-term view, we don’t want to have too many branches, but too achieve geographic cover, with a solution to have service coverage nationwide. We have privileged access to brands as we were serious early on, so we are really alone at our scale in Ireland.”
Where the competition online has been fierce and occasionally unprofitable in the past for many online specialists, Greenaer remains happy that eBikes are deemed an instore purchase by most customers. The demo, says Olivier, is crucial. “We really enjoy the appointments side, ensuring we are giving people the time to settle on the right purchase. We want people to trial with our staff and buy into that feeling and knowledge we can deliver. It’s deeply experiential and we’re discovering that for most the eBike is no longer considered a leisure vehicle. Rather it’s to be used day in, day out. You cannot get a full understanding from a spec sheet and 90% of people stick to first impressions they develop in person.”
Keeping tabs on the broader market in Europe and surging demand in some countries with greater provision for cycling has given Olivier a sense of what may come in future if, that is, political willpower remains with traction for cycling. Having taken a keen interest in the subject, Olivier says that those who have “put their necks on the line” have shown great courage and been vindicated.
“Politically in Ireland the Minister for Transport in the Green Coalition gets hammered all the time with criticism, so he acts every day is the last day on the job and tries to move quickly. That’s key, the pandemic allowed temporary measures to trial and turn to permanent, thus demonstrating their worth. Unfortunately, I see the media has a ton to do with stalling progress; our media is not interested in sustainability from transport. The knowledge base is poor and so the is the narrative that follows. A few people in Ireland are pushing at county council level with success. Robert burns, who changed things in the affluent county council in the south of Dublin, put down a template for others to follow. Here we are able to see property developers building on the sides of projects cycle lanes and pitching that as a USP. Therein lies a subtle and natural shift in thinking.”
The difference in business terms will be in both volume and value of sales, should the right incentives come to the fore to stimulate riderships, we’re told. One such tool to fill in as a stopgap until things like subsidies emerge is leasing, something that in speaking to dealers in Europe Olivier has come to see as having potential in cycling.
“We need financial instruments such as these to trickle through to the bike world and become more commonplace as they are in some European nations. I have spoken with dealers in Belgium who tell me that more than 50% of sales now go leased and that’s because the infrastructure exists end-to-end. It was tradition to give workers an Audi A3, but now that’s replaced with a smaller car or an electric bike lease. A Pedelec out there can qualify for 24 cents a kilometre allowance. Lucien, the new chain launched there, do a Stromer for €150 per year and thereafter sell the bike into the second-hand space, furthering the reach to those with less buying power,” explains Olivier.
There’s a demographic barrier for younger folk, in particular. “It is a challenge here to get 30 somethings into the eBike sphere as they perhaps can’t finance it in the same way older people can and they are somewhat used to not owning an item. Subscription is where it’s at for this customer, so you need to break into their field of view somehow. We will certainly think about a subscription service of our own in future to crack this.”
Bike sharing is another gateway into the product that has made an impact in Dublin. The introduction of these hired cycles “changed the narrative” around cycling, believes GreenAer. “We saw people in suits hiring, which did a bit to change driver behaviour once a critical mass became established. Those schemes give a taste of a different way to travel, but mostly they are not comfortable to ride, so people like to move on to ownership eventually.”
Stargazing at mainland Europe where the cultures for active travel are more established has led to other envious feelings. Again, comparing notes with European retailers, Olivier says that his average sale price of around £3,000 would more than likely be 25% higher. “There is an understanding that an eBike is an investment and one that holds its value,” he says of conversations had at Eurobike.
Pricing is a painful subject for all in the bike world at present, with increases on bikes said to be outrunning inflation and 17% higher than 12 months ago, on average. For a business based in Ireland some of that pain has been amplified by Brexit paperwork. “It’s hard for somebody in Ireland to see their bikes priced higher here than in Germany. It feels self-inflicted, but the transit via the UK has made distribution that much more challenging.”
As such Greenaer is keeping its stocks focused around in demand premium products with Riese & Müller, the largest brand by value, flanked by offerings from Haibike, Moustache, Orbea, Tern, GoCycle, Raleigh, Hercules and Urban Arrow.
“The trend for us is to contract rather than expand the network of brands. There is always the temptation to add entry-level in swathes, but we made mistakes here previously. You know they sell, but when it comes to aftersales and meeting expectations its tricky to make it match up to a profit. I think that bubble has burst lately in a few businesses, this is not an opportunist industry where you can dip in with a value eBike product that does not give full consideration for net profit margins. After sales can get complicated,” he says.
With bike retail a changing beast and not afraid to experiment, Olivier has had a separate entity open in Spain since November under the Volo Bikes banner. Operating from a transformed warehouse, this business is making the most of its location and an engaged community to become a hub and experience centre for those riding south of Barcelona.
He explains: “We have transformed this warehouse into an attractive store that is also a restaurant. In truth it is a lot less transactional and more community focused. We are selling the experience around the mountains of Garaffe, which is the ultimate MTB and gravel playground. We have fleets of bikes and events paired to their usage. The eBike is a catalyst for a happy life, so we build around that lifestyle, selling Healthy food, speciality coffee, Patagonia clothing and of course we do some cargo bike trials too. We partnered too with Thomson Bike Tours for multi-day tours. There’s a Licence to ride the Tour de France route ahead of the race so customers can do the main étapes. These customers have become very engaged and keep coming back to our meeting place, so of course they meet other like-minded people. This partnership is a joint venture and one that’s transferable to other places. It’s somewhat Rapha club membership esque. We are learning valuable lessons.”
The perceived opportunities are now well covered, but as the world faces a new plethora of economic challenges ranging wars to recessions, what observations has the Greenaer founder on the retail market’s frontline role in keeping consumers happy?
“I can see a lot more consolidation coming and indeed we have been approached by several bike shops want to sell to us, many have had enough. The turbulence that the pandemic brought took a mental toll on people, even if cash came in and that is still felt through the staff. No one talks about that, but it affects the rhythm we can coast at. Unfortunately, customers now can be very short and have low empathy as everyone is stressed. Working against online players that create unrealistic expectations in the market; that’s very fractious at times.”
Despite ‘normal’ trading conditions being a distant memory, Olivier concludes by stating that he feels, for the bike market at least, the momentum is one directional and that’s a good thing for those able to address consumer needs while cash is thin on the ground.
“The mathematics and need for social change make this transport mega trend likely to succeed. There is no going back now, the agenda is set. When I am Europe you can see that funding is given for those being part of the change. People can try to slow the trend down if they are nonbelievers politically, but when best practice is shown working next door it will not last. I’m glad in Ireland we are part of creating the mobility revolution.”
