Sue Coulson, of Batribike, talks to Pedelecs about the company’s family business roots, the motivation that drives the business forward and what 2015 has in store for Batribike fans.
Batribike is a well established electric bike company, as one of the first companies on the electric bike scene in the UK, can you tell us a little more about how and when Batribike started up and what first sparked the family’s interest in electric bikes back in 2007?
It all started because my sister-in-law, Jackie, was having knee troubles. My brother-in-law, Steve, bought a pair of electric bikes for them to take away in their motorhome. At that time they also ran a small five-pitch touring caravan and motorhome site at their home in rural Lincolnshire.
The visitors to the campsite were interested in the bikes so Steve and Jackie purchased a few more to use as rentals and for sale. They also had a stand at a Motorhome Show in York.
Steve could see that the interest in electric bikes was growing but he was disappointed in the quality of the bikes he could purchase and also the spares availability, as well as the back up, was sadly lacking.
Steve and Jackie thought that electric bikes could become a great business and asked Steve’s brother Ralph and myself if we would like to make this a joint venture. They thought that between us we could produce our very own bikes with the type of quality, service and back up that they thought was lacking in the industry at that time.
Our backgrounds and skill sets are quite diverse and we all bring different things to the business. Steve has owned and run several small businesses. Jackie, at that time, was working in management at a blue chip company. Ralph, meanwhile, was working as global software manager for an engineering company, mostly focused on CAD, and I was a full time carer for a family member but with a background in engineering design. I had also been involved with organising several big charity fundraising events.
We had discussed the idea by phone quite a lot but decided we needed to meet up for the final decision. Ralph and I live in Essex, whilst Steve and Jackie are in rural Lincolnshire – 150 miles apart!
One evening after work we met up in a service area at a halfway point and sat around the table in Steve and Jackie’s motorhome. On that dark and rainy evening, somewhere on the A1, Batribike was born.
What did you set out to do differently as a start-up and how has that evolved as your business has grown?
This question is hard to answer; looking back things have changed so much from when we started. Our main motivation was to produce a good quality, reliable, electric bike that was supported by great after-sales service and that is still true today.
We did however start as a retail-based business, targeting the many motorhome and caravan shows around the country. This sector was one of the earliest supporters of the modern electric bike and certainly drove the requirement for lighter weight batteries and for folding bikes. In those early years we seemed to be always on the road travelling to the next weekend show.
This was a brilliant time to gather market research; we talked to people all the time about what they wanted from an electric bike. People would be full of ideas on what they wanted and what they expected from the bikes. It certainly taught us to listen to the market and to react to its demands.
For example we were asked about electric trikes, and for a long time we said no, the market would be too small. However, the questions continued so we decided to test the water with a compact, tilting frame trike. The trike was received with open arms and now we offer a choice of either a tilting or rigid framed trike.
As we grew and the Batribike name became well known, retailers began to ask if they could stock our bikes. Once the retailer network reached a certain stage we took the decision to stop retailing and concentrate on supporting our dealer network. This was a big decision to take as we were directly selling lots of bikes at that time and this would cut off that revenue stream.
Whilst being a scary decision this was absolutely right for us. It follows on from our main aim when starting the business of giving great after sales service. By having a dealer network, more customers have local support. Which in turn means customers have somewhere local to take their bikes for an annual service.
We were delighted to be a finalist at the cycle industry BikeBiz awards this year in the specialist distributor category. Our dealers were very kind in their remarks about our excellent support and service to them. We believe that giving great support to our retailers has a knock-on effect as they in turn give our customers great support.
Whilst we no longer attend shows in a retail capacity it is important to us to still be out there listening to our existing and potential customers and hearing their feedback when they ride our bikes.
Batribike is now more than just the four of us, employing Austin Gough, our technical manager and Debbie Sawyer our management trainee, both of whom, alongside Steve, are fully Cytech trained.
What makes your e-bikes different to what else is on the market?
We are passionate about our bikes and we work really hard to produce what we believe is the best bike, with the best technology, at our price point. I think price is key, we often hear that this bike or that bike is the best, but people so often are not comparing like for like.
We work very hard with the factory in China that produces our bikes. They don’t make for anyone else in the UK. They make our bike frames for us – they are our frames and aren’t made for anyone else worldwide. We then look at what technology we can include that will make our bikes better, but still be able to sell at our price point.
Because we have our frames made specifically for us, our bikes are rated to 130kg. Many of the other bikes out there are using off-the-shelf Chinese frames that are not rated for the UK market.
We also use a rotation sensor because we believe that this best suits the customer for our bikes.
The handlebar-mounted display allows the rider to choose the level of assistance required, so even if someone has muscle or joint weakness, they can still select a higher power if required.
When we brought out our Pro range of bikes last Spring, we uprated the rotation sensor so that it has more pick up points, this makes it more sensitive so that the start up and die away delay is much improved. At the same time we upgraded our brakes, gears and shocks and changed to Samsung cells.
Batribike is the first and only electric bike company to fit Datatag to every bike in their range. Earlier this year we took the decision to fit the Datatag Stealth Pro security system to all of our bikes and trikes. This is another feature of us listening to customers. An electric bike is a big and considered purchase for many, so customers want to keep it as safe as possible.
Unfortunately there is no way of keeping a bike totally safe; it is a sad fact that if someone really wants something they will try their utmost to steal it. What you can do however is to make it harder and less attractive for them to take it.
The Datatag Stealth Pro system marks the bike in many different ways making it impossible for a thief to remove all of them. This then presents them with a problem, if they are caught with the bike there is absolutely no way they can get away with saying that it belongs to them. Much better then to take something that is not marked. Insurance companies also give a discount for bikes that are Datatagged.
As a company, what are you most proud of achieving?
I think you are always most proud of your latest achievement. Currently we are so proud of the fact that from March next year we will be hand-building the new Batribike Storm in our workshops in Lincolnshire. With our background in engineering the prospect of “Built in Britain” is very exciting and will be a huge moment for us.
There are so many other proud moments but I think that this year, the nomination for the specialist distributor of the year is right up there. What our dealers said about us validated all our hard work to support and promote them, yes, that made us very proud.
On a day-to-day basis, my “stand out” moments have been meeting other people out and about on a Batribike. Earlier this year Ralph and I rode a Granite Pro and a Diamond Pro around Kielder Water in Northumberland. Halfway round we met a lady coming the other way on a Diamond LCD. We said “Ooh a Batribike!” She was delighted to tell us yes and did we want to know about it, it was brilliant. We didn’t tell her who we were, just that we also were riding electric bikes. But that feeling of meeting someone out there enjoying a Batribike was really lovely.
Another good moment was when I was representing BEBA and Batribike at the All Party Parliamentary Bike Ride in London in 2013. The ride started at the Dutch Embassy and finished at Westminster. While I was riding, the Dutch Ambassador Ms Laetitia van den Assum came alongside me and asked about electric bikes here in the UK. I really couldn’t imagine when we started this business that I would be riding and chatting with the Dutch Ambassador!
As you’ve grown your company, have their been any ‘great mistakes’ you’ve made along the way that have proved invaluable lessons?
Another difficult question! Well we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t make mistakes and that is what helps us to grow, evolve and become better at what we do.
Very early on we were working with a different manufacturer. We ordered a second container load of a bike that we were already selling. When the bikes were unpacked we found that the spec had been changed without our knowledge! The display looked different, worked differently, and more importantly didn’t line up with all the manuals we had had printed! There was nothing wrong with the bike, we just didn’t know it wouldn’t be the same as what we had ordered and therefore all our marketing and everything was wrong. This is not the kind of surprise you want.
We realised then that we must be a lot more specific about what we are ordering.This mistake definitely made us much more focused and led us to working very closely with our current factory to produce our bikes, to our spec. I think it has definitely strengthened the Batribike brand.
Who buys your e-bikes, is there a particular demographic?
Although we are still very big in the motorhome, caravan, and leisure industry (in fact we still promote our bikes and dealer network at October’s big Motorhome Show at the NEC ) I think the customer base for electric bikes is wide and varied. There isn’t one particular segment of the population that you could point to that you could say “they are the electric bike riders”. Of course in general it is older riders who are targeted but younger riders are also looking for transport.
Can you tell us about your dealer network for those looking to try out or buy a Batribike?
We have a network of around 80 dealers spread around the country. The network is made up of different types of businesses. Traditional cycle shops, specialist electric bike centres, mobility shops and motorbike dealers. We work with independent business that have the same regard to our bikes and to customer service that we do.
We give our dealers great support and in turn they give our customers great support.
We have let our network grow organically which means that retailers come to us to ask to sell our bikes. When a dealer likes the quality of your product enough to ask to sell it you know that they are as excited about your bikes as you are.
All our dealers have demonstration bikes available for customers to see and try. We believe that this is important when choosing an electric bike. It is always worth giving them a ring first to check that they have the particular model that you are interested in.
Having been in this industry from the early days, how have you seen the general public’s reaction to electric bikes change over the years? Some of our readers may remember the ‘cycling for lazy people’ comment from your appearance on The Apprentice (which still haunts us at Pedelecs!), has that changed?
When we first started, people I spoke to about our new business seemed to be quite astounded, saying “there is a whole business for electric bikes?” That was the most common reaction. The feeling was that this really was a very niche market that was unlikely to catch on, and who would ride one anyway.
In some ways we were lucky to be launching into the motorhome area particularly. Sales of motorhomes were booming and when the owner parked up, how did they get to the local shop? The “in” thing was a couple of electric bikes.
But still people didn’t really seem to get the concept to start with, just like some areas of the population today they didn’t realise that it is the rider and the bike working together that is the great joy of electric bikes.
I can’t remember which year it was, but early on we attended the York Bicycle Rally. We had a stand amidst the other interesting things for sale. Well, you would have thought that we were starting a revolution. Many of the traditional cyclists were quite affronted that we were there at all. We spent most of the weekend explaining that we weren’t trying to get people off conventional bikes, it was more a case of getting people who wouldn’t normally cycle onto a bike or keeping people cycling who were beginning to struggle.
Things have changed now. We get people coming up to us at shows saying “so and so at our club, he couldn’t manage anymore, now he’s got an electric bike he is keeping us on our toes”. Electric bikes have become much more mainstream, although there are still lots of people out there that are astonished when you tell them that you have to pedal!
You mention The Apprentice and really that warrants a whole question of its own! When we agreed to be part of the show we really weren’t sure on what it was all about. It wasn’t a programme that I followed. I spent a whole day in a hotel in Birmingham shuffling in and out of rooms, explaining how our bikes work and about half an hour filming with each group of contestants. This is then distilled down to at maximum five minutes airtime.
When you are in a particular industry I think comments that you wouldn’t like to be heard stand out – such as the “cycling for lazy people” remark that was made during the show. But people that don’t know anything about electric bikes don’t really notice.
What did stand out after the show was that lots more people noticed that electric bikes can be fun! For Batribike it was great exposure and we had a huge increase in visitors to our website.
Amazingly people are still talking about it. Two years on, we still get people coming up to us saying, “I remember this bike, this was the one on the Apprentice”
How do you see the UK’s electric bike market progressing in the years to come?
The market has certainly developed over the time we have been engaged with it. We have seen continuing year-on-year growth.
We have also seen new importers/manufacturers arrive and depart, thinking that they could make a fortune instantly. The market here in the UK is not like that and I believe that customers want to see an established brand with a proven track-record.
I think that with the EPAC Deregulation Bill coming into force in 2016 some more companies may fall by the wayside with the need to conform to EN15194 and to have a plate on the bike giving all the required information.
The electric bike market in Europe is huge, and is often held up as the example of what the market here could be. As an island nation we don’t always follow the expected trends, we do things our own way and in our own time. I think the electric bike market here will be similar. I expect to see year-on-year growth continuing.
Do I expect to see a sudden massive increase in demand? Well that would be marvellous of course, but steady growth is much better for the market, it means that demand can be met by reliable quality product.
When you get sudden high demand for products, such as at Christmas when everyone wants the latest toy. The market gets flooded with inferior product to cope with that demand. After Christmas the toys are discarded and everyone says “You don’t want one of those.”
I believe that the market will continue to grow to an older generation that continues to want to be active and to enjoy all the benefits of a younger lifestyle.
In addition the younger generation will have to consider the environment; with cities restricting traffic movements, commuting by bike for longer distances will become the norm and with that the increase in electric bike usage.
And talking of the future, you’ve announced you are teaming up with Oxygen to hand build e-bikes in Lincolnshire from Spring. This breaks rank with the rest of the industry and indeed your own practice until now. What fuelled that move and what do you hope it will achieve? Are there plans to bring assembly of other Batribikes back onshore in the future?
From early on in the business we have thought that it would be great if we could build bikes here. Obviously there are financial considerations to take with a big step like that. With our price point it has not been economically viable to make this step.
We had the opportunity to work together with Oxygen to create this new bike. Whilst as far as I know this has not been done before in electric bikes it is common in the automotive industry.
Some of the major car manufacturers have worked together to create cars and vans that they then brand and market individually. It means that development and production costs can be shared which opens up new opportunities.
As the project developed we realised that we could take this one step further and assemble the bikes here in Lincolnshire. The benefits of this are many fold. We are sourcing parts off-shore, bringing in parts rather than fully built bikes utilises space much better, this gives each of the new bikes a much better carbon footprint.
We believe that customers will appreciate electric bikes hand-built here in Britain with care and attention to detail.
We are also proud that this type of project enables us to create jobs in a rural community.
Currently we are really happy with our other bikes and our manufacturer, they do a really good job for us and we intend to continue our partnership with them. The launch of the new Batribike Storm and the Oxygen MTB – X will however open up opportunities for other hand-built projects.
On a personal note I would like to sum up that I am proud of the business we have created, none of us has a marketing or sales background and for all of us we are bad at “blowing our own trumpets” but I believe that we have created the best quality electric bike out there in our price point.
Our thanks to Sue Coulson for this interview. You can find out more about Batribike here.
