About Evans Cycles
Contents
1. Evans Cycles - The History
2. Recent expansion
3. Current ownership
4. Senior management
5. Ride2Work
6. Mail order and e-commerce
7. Head office facilities
8. Positioning
9. Range of products
10. Our own bikes
11. Timeline (store openings, expansion)
1. Evans Cycles – The History
Evans Cycles was originally founded in 1921 by Mr. F.W. Evans.
The first shop was originally known as F.W. Evans Cycles and was located on Kennington Road in south east London. Trading from this site for thirty years F.W Evans Cycles built up a strong reputation as a quality cycle shop and in particular building its own frames and bikes.
In 1925 the company was presented with a silver plaque by the Cyclists Touring Club (The CTC) for ‘The greatest improvement in cycle design, construction or equipment during the year 1925’. The award was given for design and low cost production of a rear wheel dropout.
The business was eventually purchased by Joseph Smith in the fifties . At the time the shop sold a range of cycles and toys, during the seventies Joseph Smith handed the business on to his son Gary Smith who turned the shop into a specialist cycle retailer. After more than 50 years of trading at Kennington Road the site came up for development so the shop was relocated to Waterloo at 77- 79 The Cut, where the shop still trades today and continues to be one of the most well known stores in London.
During the nineties as Gary worked with Mike Rice, the Croydon store franchise owner, all of the stores were brought under the control of F.W. Evans Cycles (UK) Ltd. During this time the Evans Cycles Mail Order catalogue was launched, enabling Evans Cycles to supply a wider range of products to a much wider audience. It required the need for a central distribution centre that was established in Leatherhead, Surrey. This also coincided with the growth of a new type of retailing and the Evans Cycles web site was established.
2. Recent expansion
As the established stores began to grow from strength to strength so did the popularity of the sport and activity of cycling. This gave Evans Cycles the chance to expand further opening two more stores in West London, located in the West End and Holborn.
The business continued to prosper and soon out grew its original distribution centre in Leatherhead. In 2001 the head office and distribution centre re-located to a new 50,000 square feet unit in Gatwick, Sussex, which is still the company’s base (although this has now grown to 125,000 square feet).
With a large and modern distribution centre in place the company was able to expand more rapidly and opened between two or three stores each year until 2006 when the company opened six stores. In 2004 Evans Cycles tested the water with a store location outside of its core “heartland” of the South East of England – in Castleford (near Leeds), Yorkshire.
The pace of growth is continuing with 8 store openings across the country in 2007 with expansion expected to continue at the same pace over the next few years.
In addition to the store network, Evans Cycles also have a large Direct Sales business consisting of e-commerce sales, mail order and phone sales and Business to Business sales. The Evans Cycles manufactured bike has moved on over the past two decades but things have come full circle with the company now having developed its own complete range of bikes, under the Pinnacle brand. This range launched in October 2006 and is going from strength to strength.
3. Current ownership
Trading as Evans Cycles, our registered parent company name is Evans Holdings Ltd. (registered office: Camino Park, James Watt Way, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9TZ). Evans Holdings and its subsidiaries are a private limited company.
In 2008, a majority stake in Evans Cycles was aquired by Active LLP. The Smith family along with Managing Director Mike Rice retain a minority investment within the company.
4. Senior Management
Excutive Chairman – Nick Evans
Nick Evans, introduced the Smith family to Active LLP and he led the new investment in 2008.
Nick has an impressive track record of performance improvement at store and other multi channel retailers such as Shoe City, Cotswold Outdoor, Mappin & Webb and Watches of Switzerland and also has cycling / sports sector experience.
Nick has been known to ride up a hill or two, but likes the flat.
Managing Director – Mike Rice
Mike has been part of Evans Cycles since the eighties when he owned the Croydon franchise. In 1993 he became the Managing Director of Evans.
The office he worked from in the early nineties is still in existence at the back of the current Croydon store. Mike is involved across all areas of the business, especially as Managing Director the purchasing, marketing activities and direct sales functions.
Mike is a keen cyclist and he has won many titles in the past. From the age of 11 he was competing in almost all cycling disciplines including road racing, time trials, hill climbs, cyclo cross and track winning over 75 races including the London Junior Sprint and Pursuit titles and the South of England 20km titles on the track. Now he is teaching his kids to ride!
Retail Director – Mark Smith
Mark has responsibility for the operation of the Evans Cycles stores and Ride2Work scheme. Mark has been involved in the past in many aspects of the business including a part time Saturday boy at The Cut!
Mark also oversees the HR function within the company and has a number of cycling accolades which cover both on and off-road disciplines.
Mark’s 2007 Mountain Mayhem team came a very respectable 39th, whilst he has also achieved 49th place in Morzinne-Avoriaz, one of the toughest French Sportives in the mid nineties, in 1994 he achieved Gold Standard in La Marmotte. Mark rides everywhere on a Pinnacle Folding bike (come rain or shine) and has been known to dabble in Cyclo Cross.
Operations Director – Andrew Terrington
Andy, worked at the Waterloo Cut store from 1988 and then moved to manage the Croydon Store in 1990 where he worked with Mike Rice.
One of Andrew’s biggest achievements to date has been managing the massive project to relocate the company’s central distribution centre from Leatherhead to Gatwick.
As well as managing the Evans Cycles estate and new store openings, Andrew is also responsible for IT.
Andrew is a speed demon and loves racing cars. He is the proud owner of a Bianchi road bike, however in the past has been known to show off his skills on a BMX back in the eighties.
Finance Director – Simon Bullock
Simon Bullock, Finance Director joined the company in 2008 and overseas the financial planning and operation of Evans Cycles. This includes budgeting, purchase ledger control and banking relationships.
Non-Executive Director – Gary Smith
You’re now more likely to see Gary out on his road or mountain bike clocking up around 250 miles a week rather than being in the boardroom!
5. Ride2Work
In 2006 Evans Cycles introduced the Ride2Work programme taking advantage of the governments’ green transport tax savings. The Ride2Work programme packages up current legislation into an easy to implement and use system for employers wishing to pass these benefits onto their staff.
Employees can obtain bikes and accessories from Evans Cycles and save around 50% of the cost through Income tax, VAT and national insurance contributions savings.
The employer and employee are in a win/win situation as there is a healthier, happy workforce. The participating company also benefits as it reduces their national insurance contributions.
Ride2Work has been beneficial for a large and diverse number of companies.
6. Mail Order and e-commerce
A Mail order service has been a part of the company since the eighties starting in the basement of the Croydon branch.
An ecommerce website was launched in 1999. The website was recently redeveloped again in 2008 into the site you see today.
At the end of 2006 the Evans Cycles website was given the top ten Hitwise award, success which has continued into 2007 when the Evans Cycles website was also recognised as a ‘Web Icon’ by industry journal Retail Week.
7. Head Office Facilities
Evans Cycles head office and distribution centre is located on the Manor Royal Industrial Estate in West Sussex, just south of Gatwick Airport. The site near Gatwick has a large trade counter stocking the products available through Evans Cycles.
The site houses two warehouses, the bike warehouse includes a dedicated mail order workshop where bikes are built and inspected prior to being dispatched to internet and mail order customers.
All head office functions operate from the site. This includes accounts, human resources, customer service, design, marketing, e- commerce and estate management. The site also houses the Evans Cycles call centre which operates dedicated teams for sales and customer support.
Evans Cycles is the only UK cycle retailer to be given permission by CyTech and ACT to allow in house training for the industry's qualification for cycle mechanics and technicians. A dedicated in-house mechanical training suite is on site. This ensures the high level of quality and ability of the Evans Cycles mechanics throughout the company.
As well as mechanic training, extensive staff training takes place at Head Office, this ensures the highest level of technical ability and knowledge can be passed onto our customers both in store and through our mail order service, giving customers information to make informed decisions about their cycle purchases.
8. Positioning
Evans Cycles positions itself as the UK’s largest quality cycle retailer, providing maximum choice and value to the UK’s cycling consumers. We are passionate about cycling, in all its forms.
9. Range of Products
There are a number of different style bikes that Evans Cycles stocks to meet the demands of the cycling community:
- Cross Country Mountain
- Full Suspension Mountain
- Jump
- Touring Road
- Leisure Road
- Triathlon
- Road Racing
- Commuter
- Folding
- Hybrid
- BMX
The company stocks a complete range of accessories including clothing, helmets, shoes, accessories and components.
10. Our own bikes
When Mr F.W. Evans set up his bicycle workshop in the early part of last century, he manufactured a range of touring bikes.
In the seventies the frames were produced by frame manufacturer Chas Roberts, who had his original workshop in Croydon close to one of the early Evans Cycles stores. In many magazine articles from the seventies and eighties journalists would boast ‘I’m on an Evans’. The Evans bikes with their steel frames can still be seen around the U.K, a testament to their robust high quality.
In October 2006 Pinnacle Bikes were launched, after a number of years in development. The Pinnacle range is developed by and is exclusive to Evans Cycles.
The bikes are developed by the in house team in conjunction with engineers based in the United States and the Far East.
Pinnacle bikes are developed specifically for U.K riders with attention to detail.
The Pinnacle range includes bikes from entry level hybrid bikes through to top spec mountain bikes.
11. Timeline
| 1921 | F.W Evans Opens store in Kennington High Street | |
| 1925 | F.W Evans receives award from CTC for innovative design | |
| 1950’s | Joseph Smith acquires F.W. Evans | |
| 1960’s | Gary Smith Develops Evans Cycles into a specialist quality cycle store | |
| 1977 | Original Store In Kennington Road Moves to Waterloo Cut | |
| 1980’s | Evans cycles continues to produce a number of notable own branded cycles | |
| 1984 | Woking store opens under franchise | |
| 1985 | Kingston store opens under franchise | |
| 1989 | Wandsworth store opens under franchise | |
| 1990 | Croydon store opens | |
| 1996 | Waterloo Road store opens | |
| 1999 | An ecommerce website was launched | |
| 2001 | (Feb) West End Store opens | |
| 2001 | (Oct) Holborn store opens | |
| 2002 | Evans Cycles relocates to new warehouse and offices at Camino Park, Gatwick | |
| 2002 | (Oct) Clerkenwell store opens – as a service centre only | |
| 2003 | (Mar) Crawley store opens | |
| 2003 | (May) St. Paul’s store opens | |
| 2003 | (Aug) Victoria Store opens | |
| 2004 | (Feb) Fenchurch St. store opens | |
| 2004 | (May) London Bridge store opens opposite station | |
| 2004 | (June) Castleford Leeds store opens first | |
| 2004 | (Sept) Clerkenwell is refurbished and becomes a store | |
| 2004 | (Sept) Woking store refurbishment | |
| 2005 | Fulham branch opens | |
| 2005 | Milton Keynes store opens as part of grand opening of Xscape centre | |
| 2005 | (Sept) Spitalfields store opens and becomes largest bike showroom in London | |
| 2006 | Ride2Work programme is introduced | |
| 2006 | (April) Glasgow store open inside Xscape centre | |
| 2006 | (April) Kendal Brnach is openend | |
| 2006 | (May) Wandsworth store is relocated to larger premises on the High Street | |
| 2006 | (July) Manchester Deansgate store in opened | |
| 2006 | (Sept) Canary Wharf branch is opened | |
| 2006 | (Oct) York branch opens as a concession store inside outdoor retailer Blacks | |
| 2006 | (Oct) Pinnacle Brand is launched | |
| 2006 | (Nov) Long awaited Brighton store is opened | |
| 2006 | (Dec) Waterloo Cut branch receives refurbishment | |
| 2007 | (Feb) Chiswick store opens on the Chiswick High Road | |
| 2007 | (April) Nottingham branch opens | |
| 2007 | (May) Hendon store is opened | |
| 2007 | (May) Gateshead branch is unveiled | |
| 2007 | (June) Clapham store is opened | |
| 2007 | (July) Bristol store is opened in city centre | |
| 2007 | (August) 2nd Manchester store opens in the Chill Factore | |
| 2008 | A majority stake in Evans Cycles was acquired by Active LLP | |
| 2008 | The website is redeveloped |
Last updated 11/07/08
Welcome to Evans Cycles online.
We are the largest independent cycle dealer in the UK, and also have one of largest mail order departments too, ensuring the high quality bikes and accessories are never too far away. Our stores are in London and the rest of the UK.
Our prominently located stores and online shop carry an extensive range of products to suit your needs, whether you are a dedicated racer or enjoy a ride around the park during a sunny weekend.
Bicycles
Evans Cycles’ range of bikes covers mountain bikes from leading brands such as Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, Kona and Saracen to name just a few. We also carry more specialist machines such as Brompton folding bikes, as well as kids’ bikes and tandems. Whatever type of bike you want, we can help you find the right one, whether you visit one of our bike shops or use our online bike shop.
Bicycle Accessories
You’ve bought your bicycle, now you need to make sure you’ve got the right bike accessories to make riding your bicycle safe and enjoyable. At Evans Cycles, we stock all the bike accessories you could need including bicycle helmets, locks and cycle clothing.
Bicycle Spares
Browse through our wide range of bike spares, such as bicycle frames, bike saddles, tyres, pumps, puncture repair kits – everything you need to keep your bike in good working order.
Evans Cycles - providing Mountain, road, touring and commuting bikes, and bicycle accessories to the UK, Europe and the world.
