Retail push gathers speed as UK assembly gives eStarli wings
Bringing a splash of colour to cycle shop showrooms for the first time, Estarli has broadened the reach of its UK assembled eBikes. CI.N visited the new facility to see the firm’s wheels in motion and learn about the retail offering…
The name Estarli will only have flashed onto the radar’s of bike trade folk with an eyes on the eBike segment in the past two and a half years. Started by the Francis brothers, Alex and Oliver, the brand punched through the ceiling of a sub 2,000 square foot plot fairly recently and into a new Berkhamsted assembly with over 10,000 square feet of space.
A former software engineer and cycling enthusiast, Alex brings to the table background in electronics and algorithms, while Oliver has a multimedia background that has proven particularly handy in quickly and organically raising the profile to the point where Facebook’s ads team apparently could not understand the figures the firm’s ads were returning.
Only months in, our visit to the HQ lands on a baking Summer day where the welcome offer of a test ride cools us. The demos come aboard a selection of hub-motor clad folding and commuter bikes that are now readily available to retail stockists thanks to a decision to switch to an omni-channel approach. This decision, made possible as a result of the enhanced volume capability offered by the eight seven day- a-week workstations, has seen the business recruit its first 20 partners.
“We started in Selfridges, who approached us six months into our timeline. Taking our learnings from that, we made a plan in December for entering shops, as we had lots of enquiries as visibility of the brand picked up. A local shop of ours came to see at a show and we worked closely together to tune the process. You’ll now find us from Cornwall to Scotland, but with big gaps. Our soft target for 2023 is 50 retail partners,” explains Oliver.
Confidence in the path the pair have been on has come very naturally, we’re told, with customers becoming advocates for the bikes upon purchasing. Of course, the brand is not so much selling to typical cyclists, rather people who have come to understand the practicality of the bikes Estarli offers. The folding bikes, available in 16 or 20-inch wheeled iterations of various spec, are the perfect companion for last mile travel, whether that be for work, or to be tucked onto a boat for onshore trips.
The boating and caravanning customer have been targeted with appearances at events like the Southampton Boat Show and the brand is being thoughtful on tailoring product for specific lifestyles. “We are looking at whether we could do a special edition for boat owners using bolts that are non-corrosive, accounting for the sea air that so often destroys bikes. We also pitched up at the Green Live Show and will be doing London’s Sustainability Show in October in a bid to place this product among certain lifestyles,” explains Alex.
Whether its dressing up as Santa Claus in November and filming on the local High Street for a social campaign, or a partnership with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife trust for its Wild Ride Challenge, Estarli is going out of its way to reach the blue ocean of customers who perhaps would never badge themselves cyclists, but see how an eBike makes certain trips much more viable and satisfying. As it stands, while the brand ramps up its presence and sets down roots for the long-term, the bikes are almost too cheap for the spec and Alex explains that there is an element of subsidy in the price as it stands, just to ensure the brand’s reach in its early years goes far and wide.
“We’re occupying a deliberately premium, but affordable space where the prices are accessible, the product reliable and the backup more than covered by the stock held here. The bikes are providing immense value, especially considering the add-ons that can be achieved for very little extra – the lighting, racks and guards, for example. Of course, prices will go up, that’s an inevitability at the moment, but we are doing our utmost right now to get product out there in the market and build confidence with partners and consumers,” says Alex.
For the bike shop that means no minimum order, a decent radius of exclusivity, one-week delivery and short lead time, as well as support where required on things like brand merchandising. Spares are held in abundance, which helps the brand offer a consumer direct channel with a foundation, alongside the new retail delivery. Better still, the bikes are assembled and PDI checked in Berkhamsted by a team of largely bike shop trained staff who, judging by the many rides stashed around the factory, are clearly into their bikes. To settle any nerves for shops unsure on omni-channel, Estarli confirmed that it will sell at the same retail prices it offers partners.
“Shops that we work with love that they can call us knowing that the knowledge is here in-house,” says Oliver, adding that as far as the firm’s online presence goes, the to do list includes a store locator functionality. All of this is further backed up by an investment round that concluded in April, funding the brother’s springboard into the new plot, but more than that, giving freedom for the brand to continue to grow its UK designed catalogue. Mountain bikes and longtail cargo bikes have both been mentioned as areas of interest.
An interesting USP for Estarli is that the batteries used draw on cells from Panasonic, Samsung or LG, but it is apparently a specialist company in the Midlands that fine tunes the specs, battery thresholds and achievable charge rates. Alex says that there is a possibility that the customer could in future decide their battery spec in store. Thanks to the firm’s agility, customers can already choose certain spec upgrades on items like saddles and tyres, while coming down the line will be items like water bottle style range extenders, as already trialled on the E16s.
Another interest for the modern bike shop is how a brand is helping to reduce packaging and up its sustainability credentials. While the brand acknowledges that bringing in its frames from China does carry an impact, we’re told that Estarli has been an active player in making requests of manufacturing partners to clean up.
Proving that incremental changes are possible when brands just ask, Alex says “We made an effort to convince our factories in Asia to send goods without plastic. Now we get almost everything plastic free and better still they offer that to other bike companies too now.”
Now capable of assembling 40 bikes per day, we wonder, is that enough to satisfy current demand and that of retail stores signing up?
Alex concludes by saying “Almost, demand is still high and so we are dialling up and down any advertising presence in order to manage things within our means at present. Out the back of this warehouse we have sublet to another company space that we anticipate that we will very easily grow into in time, but we will do so at a rate aligned to giving our partners reliable stock turns and low lead times. We are very well prepared for the year ahead and very much stocked, rather than operating at just in time.”
