Wahoo opens offices in London to expand European capabilities

Now into its sixth year of trading, Atlanta’s active tech brand Wahoo has set up offices in London, UK as part of a plan to drive business across Europe.

“A lot of our partners are here and the UK has for a long time been our biggest market outside of America where we have around 600 partners,” explains Kevin Abt, who has moved to the UK temporarily to oversee the expansion alongside EMEA region manager Colin Eustace.

Having grown revenue outside of America by around 45% for the past few years, the UK now makes up 25% of the cycling tech company’s trading.

“Strava, Team Sky and Zwift all have a UK presence, so the move feels logical. We’re a hardware business, but the future of product like ours heavily involves software integration. Our portfolio of hard goods now covers an entire eco-system of inside and outdoor training gear – from trainers, through computers, heart rate monitors and more, which we find to be quite unique among our competitors,” says Abt.

Indeed the firm has begun to reveal to press the catalogue of goods set for Eurobike, including a substantial upgrade to its Kickr trainer, as well as some very clever and unique integration of Strava, among other features, into a new Elemnt computer. More details will be revealed on those once the Embargo lifts later in August.

With Team Sky’s success in the Tour de France, where riders were allegedly seen warming up/down on the new turbo trainer, Wahoo anticipates a fresh wave of interest in the brand. As a result, the firm will now seek to recruit around 15 specialist independent bike and triathlon dealers in the UK, rising to between 25 and 30 in the long term.

“We’re looking at a quality over quantity approach,” says Abt. “We want to be able to provide those partners with a strong level of support and to avoid flooding the market, ensuring each partner becomes a destination for the brand. We’ve a lot of point of sale options, ranging demo units with TV displays through to slat wall options. Furthermore, some of this material will use replaceable magnets to allow trouble free swap over when new lines or promotions land.

“We’ll look to support partners in promotion efforts too. We’re an all year round sale brand and for those committing to Wahoo we’ve a a number of great promotions to help stores drive footfall. As part of our Zwift partnership we can offer a period of free access, giving shops the ability to not only demo the full potential, but perhaps to set up competitions in store to drive customer engagement,” concludes Abt.

Further to these promotions, Wahoo has just concluded its first ever TV advertising series, having run around 30 30 second adverts on Eurosport over the duration of the Tour de France.

An existing warehouse in Rotterdam will service European retail partners with stock.