Muc-Off: Relentless with Investment
Muc-Off is increasingly an international player, now exporting to 100 countries, with its first employee taken on in South America and a new distribution facility opening in South Carolina this year. Jonathon Harker speaks with Muc-Off CEO Alex Trimnell about a start-up mindset, the continued educational opportunities with tubeless and the brand’s unrelenting emphasis on its workshop core…
How’s business so far in 2025, compared with 2024?
It’s been a really good start. We had 31% growth in 2024 vs. the previous year, and demand is on a similar trajectory as we speak. The challenges are still in the market, but we’ve been relentless with investment across our sponsorships, continuous innovation and increasing support to all our retailer partners. This has really underpinned the success for both our retailers and Muc-Off.
We’ve seen the value of the workshop increase sharply and our latest CIN Market Data supports that finding (half of bike shops have increased their workshop revenue in 2024). As a company with skin in the workshop game, what’s your view on that – a surprise or does it fit with your expectations? Presumably it is good news for Muc-Off!
Workshop has always been a vital area for us. Working with both store mechanics and professional race teams has given us invaluable feedback to continually innovate and enhance our products. Often what the mechanics use in the workshop dictates what is recommended to the customer. The professional teams are under intense race-day pressure, so linking their demands alongside IBD workshops creates a powerful feedback loop that allows us to continually innovate.
We’ve also supported the workshops with revenue-generating services such as our chain optimisation treatments, parts washers, and most recently our ceramic protection application service to protect riders’ bikes. This area of the business has continued to grow, as many new riders depend on workshops-especially with the complexity of new bikes and eBikes. It’s an area we don’t see slowing down.
Has the Muc-Off balance of product weighted to the workshop shifted over the years?
It’s been consistent throughout, we’ve always offered workshop-sized products to support the IBD with their consumable costs, and as mentioned above the initiatives we offer as a workshop upsell has always been a key focus. Ultimately, we’re creating products to make a cyclist’s life easier, which often covers both the workshop and the end user. Our mission is to create professional-grade products that mechanics trust and ultimately recommend to their customers, which in turn drives sell-through for the store.
I’m still fascinated by a PR Muc-Off put out a few years ago about tubeless tech and how 25% of cyclists believed it was too difficult for them to set up. Our findings at CIN support that-tubeless setups are still big conversations in bike shops and presumably driving customers into shops… Is there still an education challenge around tubeless tech that is actually quite good news for bike shops? Is there still growth potential for tubeless?
Yes, absolutely tubeless education is still a huge challenge. Most riders (especially newer cyclists) fear punctures and tubeless provides a fantastic solution. But the industry often makes going tubeless confusing with wheel sizes, tyre variants, etc., which is why we’ve developed a full range to accommodate this journey. We’re also developing online tools to help consumers and stores choose the right rim tapes and valve lengths for their setup which often can be confusing. We’re working very hard to make it as simple as possible. There will always be a percentage of consumers that would rather a shop sets it up for them due to Mack of confidence and wanting a safe pair of hands. However, we still see a great opportunity for tubeless growth and only expect it to increase.
How much does Muc-Off’s workshop product development use shop/workshop feedback? Can you give us a broad overview of the R&D resource Muc-Off has?
We find real-world workshop and consumer feedback vital for our product development – you simply cannot beat real-world testing. All feedback is given directly to our product team for review and further development. We have a fantastic R&D team based at our facility in Poole, Dorset, which we consider to be the world’s No.1 drivetrain optimisation and innovation facility, with over £1M-plus worth of leading-edge equipment. Not many of our competitors, if any, have full in-house testing, analysis and chemical development. We pride ourselves on having created some of the fastest chains and chain lubes in the world, which have won multiple Tour de France titles, World Championships across Road and MTB, hour records and multiple Olympic golds for Team GB. The facility continues to drive leading formulations and has a pipeline of new products over the coming years to add to the many hundreds we’ve already launched.
Has the advent of electric bikes significantly shifted the kind of product Muc-Off produces and -presuming that eBike share grows in the UK-how do you foresee that changing over the coming years?
Over the past five years, our primary focus for eBike lube development has been around drivetrain wear. The added torque compared to conventional pedal power means we’ve had to develop extreme pressure additives for our specific eBike lube formulations to reduce rapid wear. We will continue to expand development in the eBike category as we see further growth in this space.
How about the growing cargo bike movement? Is that an area where there are – or there is potential for – another category of product?
We’ve been working with some EV cargo companies as their maintenance demands are critical, especially in courier services. We’ve seen cargo bikes used in a multitude of roles, including the school run, which has become much more prominent. This is bringing a new type of cyclist to the category who require education and support as they navigate their bike maintenance needs. We have a programme underway to support these riders’ needs, which we’ll be rolling out soon.
And is that cycle logistics area – e.g.. cargo bikes/cycle logistics B2B providers – potentially an area for Muc-Off to develop into?
We have been supporting this area, especially with puncture protection and chain care, for several years. Many EV cargo bikes endure significant wear and tear due to their weight, so offering workshop products ensures proper maintenance. We see opportunity to develop further formulations specifically for this area.
How large a proportion is the UK of Muc-Off’s business these days? Still the core market? Are you targeting any other particular markets/territories at the moment where there is opportunity? And are tariffs proving a headache?
We cannot answer in specifics, but the UK is – and always will be a core part of Muc-Off’s business. Being the home market, it naturally gets a huge amount of focus. We often launch pilot trials and services in the UK first, as we have such a great network of dealers to trial these with prior to global launches. As the business grows, all territories are a focus for us. We’re now exporting to over 100 countries and are growing our teams to support this. We’ve recently taken on our first employee in South America, which is a really exciting opportunity for us. This summer, we’re about to open our own distribution facility in South Carolina to support the Americas, which is a massive leap forward. Tariffs have certainly been a headache, but with recent news, we hope there’s light at the end of the tunnel!
The sustainability movement has been growing for some time now, and Muc-Off has had Project Green for a while – can you tell us a bit more about that and the sustainability ambitions of the company?
It’s in our DNA to always drive sustainability. We’re launching a new upgraded formulation of one of our top-selling lines very soon, which we’re very proud of. We’re always pushing hard to ensure we don’t rest on our laurels. As sustainable technologies develop, we want to ensure we’re the first to adopt them. We found this with Punk Powder, our plastic-free bike cleaner, which pushes the boundaries of conventional cleaners. This is something we demand internally.
Muc-Off has been pretty strong on marketing and PR over the years. It’s a difficult brand to ignore! What’s the secret?
No secret – I think it’s passion! We live and breathe it! We’re still 100% family. and rider-owned. I think our retailers and customers are enthused by our innovation and disruptive nature. We live by the Winston Churchill quote: “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” It’s also our mindset-we still feel like a start-up, with so much to do, and being fiercely independent gives us a great environment to direct the business however we want to. We have the most dedicated team of incredible people who share the same passion the founders have had since day one, and that means a great deal to me.
Can you give us an update on the kind of projects/priorities Muc-Off has for the rest of 2025… and beyond?
We’ve got loads planned! Our immediate focus is on education-ensuring that right through the distribution chain our consumers get the correct advice and direction to get the best out of their bikes and equipment. We also have some exciting new launches coming and a strong pipeline of NPD over the next three years.
Alongside this, we’re making sure the basics are being covered. We’ve had fantastic results from our Ambassador Store Programme, with many retailers seeing significant uplift in bike maintenance sales since joining. Our category is expanding, with other care brands entering the market almost weekly, and hearing the Ambassador feedback has really helped retailers focus on one brand executed properly covering all their needs from front of house to the workshop.
We also have our revamped Bike Cleaner Refill Programme launching this month, which offers a loyalty card for consumers to get discounts on refills in-store. It’s a great initiative to support footfall back into stores and promote sustainability.
As the business expands in size, geographical reach and complexity we have several operational projects underway to ensure we meet our demand growth as efficiently as possible. This means investing in sophisticated demand planning tools, increased manufacturing capacity and multiple new logistics hubs all of which will enable our customers to get what they need, when they need it as efficiently as possible. We’re constantly driving innovation throughout the business so watch this space!
