Litelok and ION on Covid-19 trading: Direct shipping & extended product lifecycles

As the cycling industry continues to operate under lockdown conditions in the UK, CI.N has been in receipt of a number of updates from distributors and brands on how they’ve adapted to keep trading and help out bike shops during these challenging times for trading.

USE and Exposure updated us earlier today, and here are two more from Litelok and ION:

Litelok

“LITELOK® is committed to maintaining excellent customer service. We are fulfilling orders & deliveries as normal. Litelok is made in Britain and whilst some of the production cannot continue due to social distancing, we are able to maintain some activities to keep the business going, under strict and safe controls. Please keep an eye on our social channels for further updates.

“In addition to this, we are Directly Shipping B2B Orders for our new & existing customers, this allows the customer to stay at home but also help their favourite bike store during the pandemic.

“We would like to thank all NHS & Key Workers for their support during this difficult time, we know that for some Key Workers their bike is the safest way to commute to and from work whilst keeping a safe distance from others. Please feel free to contact us Via Live Chat or at hello@litelok.com if we can be of any further assistance.

“To end on a lighter note, We have been in touch with Tom Roberts. He recently had his bike stolen outside a hospital, Luke Rowe came to his aid to help him receive a new bike. We have sent a new Litelok to Tom so that he can keep his new bike secure while working for the NHS.”

ION

“Dear partners and friends…

In almost all markets, both the trade and the practice of our sports are massively restricted or completely closed due to protective measures. That means a dramatic drop in sales for the coming months. At the same time, fixed costs such as rent and electricity or wages have to be paid and the pressure from the increasing quantity of goods increases.

“This is certainly the biggest challenge for you in recent years. We as your supplier are in the same boat. Therefore, we would like to inform you about the measures we have taken and how they affect you:

1. Drop shipping is now live.

We will drop ship direct to your customers, just change the delivery address in the B2B checkout.

This allows you to keep trading and self distancing in these difficult times.

2. Reachability: In order to protect the health of our employees, we started to switch to home offices two weeks ago. We divided those colleagues whose work tasks cannot be done from home into separate teams, which work separately in terms of time and / or physically. Therefore, please contact us primarily on our mobile numbers and by email.

Our UK agent Sean Reynolds can be contacted as usual on +44 07974975492 or sean@gingerbeardandtruckercapagencies.bike

3. Change in opening hours: At the locations in Munich and Molln, our employees will have to work in government funded short-time work from Monday (30.03.2020). Nevertheless, we will still be there for you in all areas (customer service, query, accounting and warehouse). The office and warehouse hours are reduced as follows: office hours: Mon-Thu, 9:00-11:00; warehouse hours: Mon-Thu, 8:00-12:00. Our B2B platform will of course remain online for you. Please keep in touch, we look forward to every product / package that we can get on the way for you!
4. Extended product life cycle: In order to be able to sell the current SS20 collection on the market at healthy conditions during and after the crisis, we are currently revising our future market launch dates. The shifts will probably take several months, respectively we plan to have parts of our range run through the following season / collection. We would like to ask for your understanding, that we cannot pass on any more detailed information at this point in time. We will get back to you in about 2-3 weeks.
5. Payment terms: As announced at the beginning of the week, we basically have to change our payment method to prepayment because the B&M faces a financing problem. In this situation in particular, it is necessary to act economically in such a way that the outstanding debts are not increased. We also ask for your understanding in this regard. Nobody can currently predict how long this crisis will determine our (business) life. After this time, we will see where we stand and how we have to react according to the situation.

At the end we want to say one more time: stay healthy or get well soon!

With sporty greetings, Till Eberle (CEO) & Gregor König (CFO)”