Holdsworth Cycles to shut down after 86 years! Sad news indeed!

[fossala]

No just smart, I charge much the same without the shop overheads. Now you have failed to tell me the shops overheads.

I don't know but that isn't the point. Other shops charge half that!

 

[rams1de]

No just smart, I charge much the same without the shop overheads. Now you have failed to tell me the shops overheads.

It's pointless really, unless you're going to provide a comparison with overheads of the online competition. Wiggle's biggest competitor is Evans and they have a big network of retail outlets, so pricing can't be all about the cost of owning a shop.

 

[nickyboy]

Think we've been over this one before......
LBS will not survive competing head on with online retailers. But they can be extremely successful businesses by providing something to the cycling public that online retailers cannot or will not supply
1) Repairs
2) Specialist equipment
3) Very expensive stuff that customers want to touch first

Repairs are the future for most LBS and if they don't focus on this they will go to the wall

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

The guy I spoke simply told me that they cannot compete with the likes of Wiggle and Chainreaction.

I'm not surprised with that website, you can't buy anything on it and it looks like my Gran made it.
http://www.holdsworthcycles.net

Business has to move with the times or get left behind.

 

[Kies]

It's pointless really, unless you're going to provide a comparison with overheads of the online competition. Wiggle's biggest competitor is Evans and they have a big network of retail outlets, so pricing can't be all about the cost of owning a shop.

That's because most people want to sit and touch the bike they are about to buy.

 

[biggs682]

Assuming you can still find one..

@PeteXXX we still have a couple of lbs along the A45 if you need one

the one i use are very fairly priced for parts and service work

 

[PeteXXX]

@PeteXXX we still have a couple of lbs along the A45 if you need one

the one i use are very fairly priced for parts and service work

I'm going to pop over for a chat soon!

 

[Kies]

@PeteXXX we still have a couple of lbs along the A45 if you need one

the one i use are very fairly priced for parts and service work

Where on the A45.

I have an old hybrid in need of TLC at my inlaws

 

[Fab Foodie]

Forty years ago Holdsworth were the big bad guys on the South London block - buying up smaller independents and using the name as a badge. Strange how things turn out..........

I have no idea why they can't survive, piss-poor management I'd guess.
I bought a Holdsworth Elan from Biggs682 a few weeks back. I've just returned from a spirited 30 miler on her and she's fab! Whilst I have a particular fondness for them, they're nothing special, nicely made 531 frames in a variety of tube-sets. My 'new' Elan is simple butted tubes, nicely finished, but rides absolutely beautifully.
I used to go to the Putney shop on my 1950s 531pg Holdsworth as a student and look up at Elans hanging on the wall. Happy daze.

Sad. If I won the lottery I'd buy the name, re-open the shop and build proper, simple, steel bikes again.

 

[screenman]

I don't know but that isn't the point. Other shops charge half that!

Just goes to show you have no idea of the cost of business, remember Comet and Woolworths, well they both sold cheap.

 

[screenman]

Forty years ago Holdsworth were the big bad guys on the South London block - buying up smaller independents and using the name as a badge. Strange how things turn out..........

Local bike shops are opening up all over South London. Putney Cycles, a mile or so down the road, have been going for twenty years. If they can do it, why can't Holdsworth?

They are charging properly, much the same as the shop the OP quotes in the first post. Also they are servicing and targeting so called all the gear riders some of you seem to meet, must say I never have.

 

[biggs682]

Where on the A45.

I have an old hybrid in need of TLC at my inlaws

@Kies in Wellingborough

 

[biggs682]

I'm going to pop over for a chat soon!

more than welcome

 

[Dan B]

Think we've been over this one before......
LBS will not survive competing head on with online retailers. But they can be extremely successful businesses by providing something to the cycling public that online retailers cannot or will not supply
1) Repairs
2) Specialist equipment
3) Very expensive stuff that customers want to touch first

In regard to #3 you may wish to read the thread elsewhere in the forum about Giant in Cambridge and the difficulty of getting test rides