All bike dealers enjoy selling big-ticket accessories such as helmets, exhausts systems, textile clothing and leather suits. However, day-to-day, bread-and-butter sales are also essential. A consistent turnover of smaller ‘pocket money’ purchases can provide a significant source of income, with customers often making impulse buys in-store. Sales of items like £10 neck tubes, £25 cleaning kits, £50 battery chargers, and £75 D-locks can really add up, and these products typically offer much better profit margins, compared to selling new bikes.
The current market leader is, of course, Oxford Products, which has built a massive reputation over the years, but there have been other brands, too. Many will remember Motrax and its ubiquitous point-of-sale displays festooned with disc locks, stick-on helmet ears, anodised tax disc holders (remember those!) and other high-volume, fast-moving bike trinkets.
Now there’s a new name in this sector – Riderr – and it’s aiming to provide some stiff competition to the existing players. Backed by one of the UK’s largest distributors, Nevis Marketing, it’s a brand-new operation that aims to provide a range of well-made, well-designed bike accessories, covering both the usual basics such as bike covers, heated grips, and locks, as well as adding some novel technologies.
Riderr is the brainchild of Chris and Lucy Crutwell, both long-time bikers and workers in the bike trade. They registered the Riderr trademark at the end of 2023, with Nevis getting involved in the summer of 2024. Now, Nevis and Riderr are launching the first phase of the brand’s product launch, featuring 45 separate product lines, with stock already reaching dealers. Phase two will arrive later in the summer, adding another 100 SKUs to the mix. And more is promised over the next year.
BDN’s Alan Dowds spoke to Chris Crutwell, who is understandably excited about his new venture. “The idea behind Riderr is to go into dealers and offer them new and innovative products. Something that we think is better, and of higher quality, than other products on the market.”
Crutwell outlined the key products in the initial range. “We have bike covers, but quality covers that are better at their price point than the competition. There are decent-quality heated grips available at better price points, with integrated heating controls, and they’re not only built for ease of use but also for the convenience of the consumer. They’re also made so that they’re easier to fit in a workshop. We’ve looked at what the retailer wants, and what would a workshop want. What would the wholesaler want? And what would the end user want? And then we’ve tried to make a product that works for everyone.”
Crutwell says the brand will focus on both the traditional biker demographic and new, younger riders. “We have innovative products, we have the smallest micro-charger coming through on the market. We have products that are next level. We’re targeting everyone – we want to appeal to the whole market, but we’re specifically looking at Gen Z, Millennials, sub-45-year-olds… the people that we can transition into the future.”
How is Riderr developing its range? “We do a split of ODM [original design manufacturer] and OEM [original equipment manufacturer] products. ODM is a full design; it’s effectively like white-label products. We will do more ODM, and we have a lot of ODM products for phase two.”
And as with many modern brands, manufacturing is focused in China. “It’s important for us to offer quality products, and we deal heavily with China. We have some fantastic factories there. They work very hard, and they want this to succeed. It’s nice for them to have European clients, and if we can drive the European market for them, it looks good for them.”
Nevis clearly plays a big part in this story and will be distributing the Riderr brand internationally, as well as in the UK. It’s a big change for the firm, which has previously focused entirely on rider kit – helmets, boots and clothing. This will be its first brand ‘for the bike’ rather than for the rider.
Nevis MD Scott Empson told us about the thinking behind the new operation. “It’s something we’ve spoken about as a company for years, but we’ve always concentrated on what the rider wants, not necessarily what the bike wants. We don’t do any hard parts: chains, sprockets, tyres. We’re not involved because its very price driven. But when this opportunity came around, it was almost like we were looking for Chris and Lucy, and they were looking for us. We nailed a deal quite quickly, and then it was all systems go.”
How is the international distribution plan going? “We already have European distribution with MKC, which has 18 shops throughout Europe, mostly Benelux. We attended an international meeting recently with a lot of big international distributors and retailers. But our main focus really is the UK market.”
And Empson spoke a bit more about the philosophy behind the Riderr launch. “We want to give dealers a choice. We believe our quality is equal or better [to the current competition], and many of the designs are better. Phase two is the exciting part. Phase one is very much what people want and what sells: locks, covers, and heated grips. But phase two is innovative; there’s stuff there that isn’t on the market right now.
“We don’t want to knock the competition out of the market; Nevis has never operated with that mentality. We just want to do our own thing and develop the brand. What we want is for the brand to be successful and to hit our own personal targets.
“I can also honestly say dealing with Chris and Lucy is a pleasure. You can feel Chris’s enthusiasm – and what better brand ambassador than the man who owns the company?”
One big advantage for Nevis is obviously its existing sales infrastructure, with sales staff, logistics and ordering portals already in place. And Empson says that current Nevis dealers and new dealers are more than welcome to take on the Riderr brand. “Just get in touch and we’ll send an area manager in straight away. Riderr products are on our live B2B system now, and stock is already in.”
Nevis Marketing
01425 478936
[email protected]
www.nevis.uk.com