I ran the CTC Shop on a franchise basis for them so I am really sad to see them close. I have the upmost respect and fondness for all involved at Geoffrey Butler Cycles, nearly all of them have been there for years; they must all be truly devastated on every level. I fear there will be more casualties during this pandemic, cycle retail has not been as amazing as many may understanbly assume.
Yes the demand for everything cycling during the summer was much higher than normal, but supply was much worse than normal and it's getting worse. A few weeks ago I quoted a customer 'June' for a
Medium Trek Slash 8; which is a current bike, we had just sold the one we had ordered back in the summer; the customer responded unsurprisingly with "Oh no, five months"; I then finished what I had started and said "not June 2021, June 2022!".
The availability of parts is not much better, a few days ago I tried to quote for a custom build using the customer's existing frame and updating to Shimano GRX810, nearly all of that had late summer and into the winter lead times. I still work for a LBS and am personally still part time Furlough, I am bike fitter and salesman, I can not do the former and am very limited to what I can offer regarding the latter. Brexit has also taken everyone by surprise as well, imports are slower and far more expensive, expect to see significant price increases to bikes especially.
All the above will have been the same for Geoffrey Butler, I had a few chats with their Director Stephen Delaney during the last few months, talking through how we hoped we would get through this with supply being so poor. The distributors seem to be supporting the larger multi outlet online stores more than a quality LBS, their business model is far more 'click and collect' and they use their stores far more as that, a collection point to distribute their large stock holding. For sure they were brave and invested heavily with large orders that the suppliers fulfilled while they could. I know the majority of local bike stores were more conservative and paused to see what was going to evolve, for all we knew we were going to have to close and then have no revenue to pay for all that stock, that slight caution was both understandable and arguably I believe they were showing due diligence; sadly in hindsight it effectively resulted in them missing the opportunity to get stock while it was still available. Fair play to the decision makers and those who fund these large outlets, they took an educated gamble and it worked perfectly, but for me it's similar to Supermarkets versus local Green Grocers, Butchers and Bakers, it's all rather fabulous but I feel on many levels we are much poorer for it.
The multi outlet click and collect business model can work to an extent, although it has to be said it's these chains that often get into financial difficulty, but for me it's works far more on a business level than it does for what I would personally look for. I'm not just talking about the cycle trade, I'd much rather buy something from someone that offers a superior service than I would give my business to someone just because they can supply the item I want. In the case of a quality LBS they may offer a 'sizing' and then 'collection fit', the former not only helping with size choice but often what is the most suitable model as well; far more danger of ordering the wrong size or model when it's 'click and buy/collect'.
Odd times for us all, I sincerely hope all involved get something soon.
