INTERVIEW
A NEW START FOR A 165-YEAR-OLD BRAND
Pearson Cycles, one of the oldest bike brands (and shops) in the world is on the cusp of a strategic rebranding, with the focus firmly directed towards a premium, well-engineered bicycle company specialising in fit, delivery and customer service. Pearson CEO Scott Davies talks balancing D2C with a shop network and using vast amounts of bike fit data to inform bike design...
PEARSON, one of (if not the) oldest bike brands in the world, is on the cusp of a re-brand and revamp. This strategic change has been fortunately timed, arriving as Pearson’s home UK market is (finally) enjoying a solid block of sunshine and an accompanying welcome boost to bike-related sales.
Chatting on the point of green shoots in the UK trade with Pearson CEO Scott Davies (“the industry is seemingly starting to turn the corner”) we switch focus to the changes happening behind the scenes on this heritage brand.
“What we are doing is developing the business and grow out of the skin of the old shop brand, the bicycle shop brand, which then became a clothing brand in a separate company… to become a more premium, really well engineered, customer service-orientated brand,” Scott tells CIN.
“That’s the thing that really drew me into this. It isn’t an inherited business that has come to people that want to, as with some of the Italian brands, make as much money as they can with the family brand. It’s passionate cyclists that know a lot about cycling, a lot about bike fit, a lot about getting people on bikes”
Scott Davies, Pearson CEO
A BIT OF HISTORY
“Pearsons is actually the oldest bicycle brand in the world. We’re the oldest bicycle shop in the world. Back in 1860, bicycle shops also made bikes, so we are also the oldest bicycle maker still in business, because that's just how it was – it was literally a forge.
This fifth-generation family business was run by the Pearson brothers, Will and Guy, operating out of the shop in Sheen. It was retailing a couple of brands and the brothers started to develop their own bikes.
They’re both really enthusiastic – and actually really bloody good bike riders and still passionate about it. That's the thing that really drew me into this. It isn't an inherited business that has come to people that want to, as with some of the Italian brands, make as much money as they can with the family brand. It's passionate cyclists that know a lot about cycling, a lot about bike fit, a lot about getting people on bikes. In 2018, they decided to develop the brand into clothing as well and I think they found that transition – from a bicycle shop into a bicycle brand, and then a clothing brand – was too difficult for them.
They raised some money and migrated the brand into the independent company. We've got some great shareholders – for example, the founder of ASOS – and they've been really great at growing support. Then there was Covid, when everything went crazy, and I think while William or Guy were getting a lot of things right, they saw that they could benefit from getting more business acumen. For example, they expanded the brand to keep the margin intake as high as possible. And when I started speaking with them, they couldn’t really pin down what it was. Was it a bicycle shop? Is it a clothing brand? Is it a bicycle company?
I had just come out of financial services and I was looking for my own bike project – the bicycle industry is my passion. One of my best friends was actually the Chairman and I was approached to come and take over the Chairman role of Pearson. I got speaking to William about where the business was, what it was doing. And it soon seemed clear that they actually needed someone to come and take over the reins. I said that if I was going to become the Chairman then I would insist they do that and then as things evolved I ended up taking the CEO role. Then we focused and made sure that we just really stuck in our lane.
I’ve travelled all over the world and been into a lot of bike shops in a lot of places, Italy and France, because I used to run Factor and worked with Basso for a while as a consultant. I don’t think I’ve been in a bike shop that was run as well as the way William and Guy ran that bike shop. The customer service is exceptional. They were getting loads of things right and I said we need to narrow our focus, choose our customers and get it right for the cyclists. They had to come first. Then we worked on some authentic engineering, authentic testing and authentic things around how we make our product work and fill the gaps that the industry was ignoring.
So, we pulled the range and now have a very distilled range of three products. We can control our supply chain, develop our products a lot more. Then we brought in industry leading partners. What we're building is part of the brand evolution, to be a completely focused premium bicycle company specialising in fit, delivery and customer service. That's where we are today. That’s going to start to come to fruition in the next half of this year.
POLARISING
The other thing about the brand is that the brand trademark is very polarising, which never sat well with me. I've never liked it, and I spoke to a lot of customers who felt the same. We’re working with a great agency, BCMH, and you’ll see the results of that already on the Pearson website.
Our frames are made in China, but whereas a lot of industry assembles there too, we bring in everything as an individual component. We've got our own workshop and facilities. The rigour around how we build bikes, and the care and attention that we put into building bikes is world class. I've worked with pro teams in the world tour, and it really is world class.
Our objective is that when a customer gets the bike, it’s ready to ride immediately. There's no figuring things out. And we've hand built it in London – hand built by one person and then peer reviewed by another person. Our head bike builder Bobby has another level of care and attention. You could eat your dinner off his workshop floor. He builds every bike as if it was his own. And that's what I've been aiming for. That's really important to us.
BRINGING IN TALENT
“The job of a CEO is people, culture, strategy and execution. The first thing I look to do is make sure the culture is correct, and that it is a great place to work. Then we get the right people. When we are looking to get the right people, it is to make sure they fit culturally. I'd much rather have somebody that's a 90% cultural fit and 60% of the skills right, and upskill them, than get somebody that's 90% of the skills and 60% of the cultural fit, because that's a lot more difficult to make work.
I think it's difficult getting people in certain roles. Marketing is quite difficult, and we're still a small team, so I think we'll probably feel some of those growing pains as we expand.
D2C AND RETAIL NETWORKS
“Currently we run about 70/30 dealer or B2B to D2C but we’re looking to grow our dealer network. We want a maximum of 15-20 who really understand the brand and we can really work closely with – those that get our ethos and are really good bike shops. We just don't want our bikes to just go into a corner with no POS…
The thing that we do differently, is we don't ask for a dealer to do a stock-in because I think it puts adverse pressure on your brand. We supply the bikes. If you want to work with us, we want to work with you and we're not putting any pressure on you to buy because it's pressuring your cash flow. They get a fixed margin and it's fair game across the board. The customer buying online will get the same price in the shop and everyone's happy. It’s a very unique way of dealing with dealers, and it works really well.