Halfords to sell Bromptons

[John1054]

I'm so glad that I bought my Brompton from Ben at Kinetics. He's worth more than any potential discount at Halfords

[mjr]

'being sold in Halfords' is the sort of thing that can damage a premium brand's reputation. The management at Brompton are presumably being told that they have to 'grow or die' or something.

From the article linked in the first post:
"Butler-Adams admitted that being stocked in Halfords would be a “risk,” but he felt there was “an opportunity to increase sales of Brompton bikes via bike shops because of being stocked in Halfords. The people who shop in Halfords own cars and caravans and we need to be reaching those people. Halfords has tremendous reach.”"

I'm sure some will like their focus on drive-cycling

[Brucey]

Just wondering, what is 'Fertigungstiefe' in English?

-er... a bit of a mouthful....?....

cheers

[Cyril Haearn]

Oh no, TDC again

Never ridden a Brompton but I remember reading about the first folding bikes that were produced when motor ownership became common, the bikes were so bad that TDC turned into TD.

[Cyril Haearn]

Just wondering, what is 'Fertigungstiefe' in English?

-er... a bit of a mouthful....?....

cheers

Real net output ratio according to wiki

The German word is easier for once, it translates as depth of production, a high Fertigungstiefe means a lot of the work (value-adding processing) done by the firm (buy raw materials, produce complete bike), a low Fertigungstiefe indicates assembly of bought-in parts that were produced elsewhere

Fertigung: production, working, adding value

More German vocab
Fahrrad: cycle
Dreirad: tricycle
Laufrad: wheel
..
Rad: cycle

Hope you have learnt something from me for once Brucey

[Cyril Haearn]

'being sold in Halfords' is the sort of thing that can damage a premium brand's reputation. The management at Brompton are presumably being told that they have to 'grow or die' or something.

From the article linked in the first post:
"Butler-Adams admitted that being stocked in Halfords would be a “risk,” but he felt there was “an opportunity to increase sales of Brompton bikes via bike shops because of being stocked in Halfords. The people who shop in Halfords own cars and caravans and we need to be reaching those people. Halfords has tremendous reach.”"

I'm sure some will like their focus on drive-cycling

Maybe Brompton should just up the prices

Or sell in large quantities to caravan manufacturers, doubtless each van has a tivi & fridge, two cycles could be added

[Bonefishblues]

'being sold in Halfords' is the sort of thing that can damage a premium brand's reputation. The management at Brompton are presumably being told that they have to 'grow or die' or something.

From the article linked in the first post:
"Butler-Adams admitted that being stocked in Halfords would be a “risk,” but he felt there was “an opportunity to increase sales of Brompton bikes via bike shops because of being stocked in Halfords. The people who shop in Halfords own cars and caravans and we need to be reaching those people. Halfords has tremendous reach.”"

I'm sure some will like their focus on drive-cycling

My perception, based on nothing but that, is that the Brompton price point is a way North of what the Halfords punter might expect to pay for a 'little folding bike', no matter how clever.

I expect I will be proved wholly wrong.

[PH]

My perception, based on nothing but that, is that the Brompton price point is a way North of what the Halfords punter might expect to pay for a 'little folding bike', no matter how clever.
I expect I will be proved wholly wrong.

Yes, your perception is wrong, I don't know who you think the Halfords punter is, they're mainstream, they'll draw from a larger section of society than any specialist.
Here's one folder available from Cycle Republic, you could buy two Bromptons for the price of it
https://www.cyclerepublic.com/tern-verg ... -2018.html
The Bickerton I was looking at in my local standard Halfords, was around £800. And they're also hoping their punters buy £2,000+ Boardmans

[Bonefishblues]

We may have different standards of proof

[mjr]

We may have different standards of proof

86-proof?

[sizbut]

Its hard to gauge things, but if you look at Brompton's 2016-2017 financials, ie. post move:

Bikes 44K
Revenue £32M
Profit £2.5M

That's roughly £50 profit a bike or 8%'ish. That's actually not much for manufactured goods and it wouldn't take much to turn things bad. That must have been a big part of the need to move the factory to somewhere where they could implement better flow and efficiency. But big thumbs up for staying loyal to London, and it does represent a market of a ridiculous number of commuters arriving every weekday.

That said, partnering with a large corporate who will probably collect and distribute stock would be a tempting opportunity even if it means sharing margin. Lets hope it works for them rather than harms them.

[mjr]

Maybe they just need to maintain coverage, with so many independents closing and the possibility of Evans disappearing the network of dealers is beginning to look patchy.

Did Brompton partner with Evans when that chap who now works for Half odds was there? If so, he may have again offered whatever assurances were needed to convince Brompton to sign with Evans, plus he may have known when any minimum exclusivity with Evans ends/ended, plus Brompton are probably in a stronger position to sign a new partnership now than after their main chain store dealer collapses if it does, plus (as discussed in a past topic) he may have a bit of a grudge against Evans and this must hurt them a bit.

[Oldjohnw]

It may be fashionable to knock Halfords but worth remembering that it owns Tredz (www.tredz.co.uk) which supplies a massive range of bikes.

[mjr]

It may be fashionable to knock Halfords but worth remembering that it owns Tredz (http://www.tredz.co.uk) which supplies a massive range of bikes.

Or at least claims to, but it might be as untrue as other claims on Tredz's website to supply various parts have been (going back well before Half odds ownership, but it seems to have got no better).

[Randy_Butternubs]

They're UK-made in part because it allows the company to keep a close eye on production and keep their trade secrets, know-how etc. close to their chests, and partly for the branding value of being able to stick a union jack on the side. The London thing I've never been quite sure of; I suppose as a premium brand they can perhaps better afford the rents, but once they moved out of the original factory I'm surprised they didn't look further afield. .

The boss at Brompton is reported (can't recall where I saw it) to say that they did consider moving, but considered how hard it would be to train a new workforce. And, I suspect there may be a little bit of care & consideration towards existing staff as people, rather than interchangeable-assembly-operative-units.

Elsewhere, on the Financial Times recently, was an article about German Mittelstand companies (the medium sized companies which are, arguably, the powerhouse of German industry). That article cited workforce quality of life and obligations towards workforce as a primary aim rather than "profit this year", an approach which leads to "profits next year, and the year after, and the year after that....".

This. I was shown around the Brompton factory a few years ago. At the time they had a several-month waiting list for orders and was told that they were keen to move into a bigger place in order to step up production. Problem was that most of their staff was very local and even moving to the other side of London would have meant losing a lot of them.

I got the impression that training was a big deal and that they couldn't just hire a few random machinists or welders and put them to work. For example, their heat treating machine (I think) was custom made and, at the time, they only had one person who knew how to operate it.

I think it's overly skeptical to consider 'made in London' to be a marketing gimmick in their case.