A “soft opening” weekend at Motorcycle Hub in Blackburn attracted more than 1000 visitors, according to owner Stewart Holden, who explained that the official unveiling would be next month, September. “We laid on Prosecco, Peroni and some nibbles for the customers while they their first look round,” he explained. Retired four-times World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty also attended.
Previously, Holden had been general manager of the recently defunct Rocket Centre in Blackburn’s Trident Park, where, he said, owner Ross Walker could no longer make the figures add up, business rates and services were going up and franchise diktats and sales targets were driving down margins.
So in February 2017 Walker made the decision to retire and put the business on the market. Even the endorsement of Fogarty couldn’t persuade any of the existing franchisers to take the business on. Holden managed to persuade three other members of staff, Susan Brown, Sharon Deans and Jonny Sahami, to take the big step of going it alone in different premises. The old building has now been taken over by Quentin Willson’s Warrantywise group and Lister Cars.
There are no motorcycle sales or servicing at Motorcycle Hub, as the new venture is known (or Motorcycle Clothing Hub to give it its registered name).
The Motorcycle Hub business model, as informed by the ultimate failure of the Rocket Centre, is pretty straightforward, admits Holden. “It’s a very low-overhead, clean (new build and contaminant free), and accessible (just off junction 4, M65) 1500sq.ft site. And by concentrating on clothing and accessories we can deliver a top-level customer experience. Additionally, having a tradable leasehold agreement with the site developer meant start-up costs could be contained.
Holden is deliberately keeping the range tight because he feels staff have to know the product to be able to add perceived value, which is something you can’t get on the internet.
Motorcycle Hub stocks Arai, Bell, HJC, AGV, Box Alpinestars, RST, Oxford, Muck Off, Silkolene oil, Motul, NGK, Yuasa, EBC, and RFX.
Full story in the September issue of BDN.