Velobrands talks aligning portfolio around short lead time shop sales

Velobrands has tilted itself to become one of the market’s more agile, yet reliable distributors in selecting brands with short lead time potential. Simon Ford, the new MD, explains all…

You’ve had a short while to settle as VeloBrands’ new MD, but for those that do not yet know you, tell us a bit about your background.

I began my sales career at 17 as a van salesman selling fresh foods to shops, garages, and campsites and from that, way back in 1992, I got my first area sales manager position with a well-respected London-based company selling fine foods to delicatessens and butchers’ shops all over the west country.

Around the end of 1994, as a keen cyclist, my local IBD made me aware of a sales role in the cycle trade with Moore Large. I got that job and did well there, then went on to work with a few different cycle industry companies, and happily, 28 years later I am still working in the industry.

During my career to date I have worked in most areas of the industry; P&A and bike sales; key and national account management; brand management; marketing, and sales team management.

My most recent role was at Extra UK where I was Sales Director until the end of 2021. I have enjoyed working closely, in a variety of roles, with some of the best brands and people in the cycle industry over a long period of time.

Since you landed, what things have been a priority for shaping the business for the future?

VeloBrands is a relatively young company with a small, well organised, friendly, professional team. At the level the business has been running at there was no need to change much, however, my remit from my start was to help build a better structure in readiness for a larger team and a better product offering.

Organisation, communication, visibility, assets, marketing, and reporting have been added to or improved to a level that can now support our growth. Choices on current brands and potential future brands have been made and we now have a clear portfolio plan in place.

We’ve taken some time to understand who we are, what we want to be and to whom, and this is ongoing. It’s required the patience and understanding that we can’t do everything at once, but I am glad to say that seven months in, everything is going well and beyond expectations. I have a great team with me here.

Talk us through the ups and downs of an unusual few years. Did you ride the wave and following storm well?

My experience, I think, will be the same as most distributors. As the pandemic took hold sales immediately dropped off a cliff, then roll forward a few months they rocketed with high sales continuing right through until around September 2021. Companies grew 30%, 40%, 100%, which is staggering. As a sales director then, it was a very easy place to be when you have market demand and growth like that. For anyone in procurement and operations though, it was not easy, nor is it easy now.

Post pandemic, the market is facing headwinds as trade returns to a more realistic level with most people seemingly looking at a target around 2019 levels. At VeloBrands we have growth from adding to our portfolio, so we needn’t slip back, if at all. There is a lot of excess stock in the market now which is diluting and devaluing sales at a time when the market, according to the UK BA Data, is around a third down versus 2021 year to date. It’s still very choppy out there.

Over the past years shops have more than ever been juggling suppliers in a bid to source the right stock. What labels has VeloBrands added and what’s the stock situation like forward looking?

We have added three fantastic brands to our portfolio so far in 2022. We also removed six that we felt didn’t have a future with us. We will exit brands where they don’t fit, or if we feel that we are not adding value in some way. With brands that we have added the lead times are working in our favour.

AbsoluteBLACK, for example, their production is in Poland and the lead-time to me is around ten days from order. This means that we can react very quickly to market demand, a real advantage over many other component companies.

Litelok locks are made in Swansea, so our lead time for locks is just weeks, and they are delivered next day without import duties and container issues. It’s exciting to be working with this young British brand.

And our most recent partnership is with Spatzwear, another British brand. They hold their worldwide stock here in the UK, so we can draw small and often replenishment orders. A lot of their product is made in Europe and fortunately Spatzwear have a very close relationship with their factories so lead time can be as little as six weeks.

We have a very clear future portfolio plan. Additions should have a clear USP over everything else that is in the marketplace. Each of these new brand additions has that, they are not just another XYZ. The strategy is to provide a limited portfolio of interesting and creative products, market disruptors maybe, with each brand having a desire to fit those criteria.

In addition to this, in the next year, we would like to add another major brand to sit alongside our current major brand that is KASK. We also consider where current brands are in their timeline, for example, we distribute Kids Ride Shotgun which fits our USP model precisely and is also on a steep upward trajectory, with a young blossoming team and brand with a clear path forward; that’s a perfect example of the type of brand we wish to work with. Overall less brands and more focus is the strategy, we are not brand collectors.

Has VeloBrands recently made or planned any investment in the capability of the business going forwards?

We have invested by doubling the size of the sales team in the last months with 3a trio of new recruitments, this is to give the necessary full support to our brands. I believe that face-to-face contact to understand a customer’s profile, situation and needs is really important; it’s hard to do everything on a Zoom call. We will add a sales manager to help manage and train our new sales team and to help with key account visits. We have also planned investment with an additional internal salesperson and a national brand manager.

Further to this, we continue to invest in the best CRM software to help us manage sales, reporting and customer contact.

For the large part of the market that are now workshop focused, what specialist service propositions can you offer?

The advantages with all our brands is great stock availability, the extensive range possibilities, no big buy-ins, free product for staff use, and for Juice Lubes, a monthly free product offer with new orders of just £100. Free point of sale is also available, which can work well in a workshop setting.

From a retailer’s perspective, with so much competition, why choose VeloBrands?

I hope that, increasingly so, our brand portfolio is such that it stirs interest with retailers. We won’t be a retailer’s largest supplier and that’s fine, but we have great products that create interest for their customers above or alongside some of the more obvious product and brand choices. Consumers are more product aware than ever, so I’d ask retailers to consider looking wider at what will differentiate them from a standard bike shop or an online store.

Every new account application must be visited by one of our sales team, we do this as a responsible distributor.

Interested new accounts can contact us on info@velobrands.co.uk, or 01363 85617 (yes, a 5-digit telephone number, we are based in Devon!)