Inside Oxford Products’ investment into homegrown goods
If Oxford Products was one of those suppliers that fell off your radar during the pandemic it’s worth looking again. In the process of vastly expanding its capacity, within the new and reorganised buildings you’ll find a surprisingly innovative business with a broad offering…
Where to start with Oxford Products’ growth in the cycling (and motorcycle) markets? We could first of all point to the arial view of the estate; found just off the A40, just in case you fancied visiting. The business, currently expanding to cope with demand for its products, now requires those passing between its various buildings to take a walk along a shared use cycle path from one segment of an industrial estate to another.
Out on its own, the Research and Development centre is a good place to start for those who haven’t taken a closer look at this behemoth of the bike and motorcycle markets. A perhaps little considered factor when you enter the firm’s showroom (again, that’s a different building) is that Oxford Products has invested heavily in designing, prototyping and testing to destruction its latest flagship products.
Over in R&D, 3D printers capable of producing samples in many materials whirr away, trimming down the lead time to produce any given product by months and reducing the margin for error enormously. At the time of our visit a shoulder pad for a motorcycle jacket was just completing, illustrating the point that the small, but important details to a rider’s safety are meticulously designed. Alongside the printer you’ll find an alcohol bath and UV curing stations that further accelerate the speed at which a trio of on-site R&D engineers can turn around a concept. With a suite of CAD and photographic rendering software these specialists are able to experiment freely to meet the trends in the market while they’re still hot.
On the subject of tapping trends in a timely fashion, Oxford’s clothing department, the firm’s fastest growing segment of the past five years, has recruited talent from the worlds of sportswear and high street fashion. Having made major gains in motorcycle, the design team’s attention is now on cycling wear.
At the present time the company’s trade remains true to its roots in motorcycle at 80% of business to cycling’s 20%. That said, the balance is tipping and the hard-earned knowledge from a market where product must meet higher standards only serves to enhance standards on cycle products; goods ranging from waterproof luggage and bike security to the bread-and-butter finishing kit which decorates and upgrades a bike. What’s more, Oxford’s significant expansion is largely triggered by a need to meet cycle market demand.
On the cusp of the business’s 50th anniversary, the opening of two adjacent facilities next door to the main building will add an additional 3,500 spaces for pallets, taking the total capacity to 13,500. After this, there is space for extending the warehousing by a further 42,500 sq ft to create a total estate approaching 200,000 sq ft. Add to this a separate facility opened in 2021, housing two large purpose-built photography & videography studios (fully equipped with the latest cameras, lighting and recording technologies) and an editing suite, and you get the feel for a business leaving no stone unturned when it comes to designing, developing and selling its wares.
David Jesson, Oxford Product’s Head of Commercial for cycling explains on a walk between buildings “We currently hold a warehouse-busting £15.5 million of stock, with more arriving every day, so the need to add space has never been so pressing. Typically, we have one or two containers worth of stock landing each day. We expect that once we have moved stock around in the rear two units that the main warehouse will be rearranged to squeeze out more capacity, about 20% more according to the consultants that have run the numbers.”
All of this has added plenty to Oxford’s revenues, about £8 million extra during the peak of the pandemic’s spike in demand. Part of this can be attributed to a bustling export trade, with the Oxford branding increasingly sought globally; in two years overseas trade has seen a 36% growth and in some cases product is sent direct to source where it makes sense logistically. Where Brexit is concerned, Oxford says that its international partners ended up ordering significantly more in advance to get ahead of any complications, but ended up selling through, proving the product’s demand.
On sourcing, one of the most eye-catching things Oxford Products has to offer alongside its catalogue is a European made point of sale and merchandising range that is immediately eye-catching. Lit up by in-built, remote-controlled LEDs, the demo showroom at the HQ does a spectacular job of demonstrating how effective a smart display can be at attracting a customer to engage. When it comes to the security product the metal display stand even builds in a ground anchor, enabling the customer to physically see and understand how this high security line works in tandem with a robust Diamond standard lock.
With expansion at the rate Oxford has achieved the question on sustainability has to be asked; how does this square up with a reduced environmental impact? While conceding there is work to be done, Oxford walks us to the in-house testing lab to demonstrate their answer, which centres on longevity. Buy cheap, buy twice, buy tested to death, buy once, Jesson suggests.
Going on to prove the point, the test lab includes, among other things, a 5,000kg Tensile Tester, an Accelerated Weathering Tester, advanced electronic data logging equipment, a colour-transfer Perspirometer and a calibrated Incubator. Between this impressive array of machines Oxford is able to gain another competitive advantage in that it can basically eliminate the odds of a product failing when it goes off for independent testing and certification. What’s more, the firm knows its competitor’s products limits, so utilising that data is always able to go further.
