Brother Cycles

Idea

Introduction

Brother Cycles is a London based company offering a selection of hand built steel bicycle frames. The company is run by brothers James and Will, who painstakingly design and test each product themselves. James’ technical background and Will’s experience in marketing and events meant they were well prepared for the company’s launch in 2010.

They began with the release of a single product, a classic steel track frame. This was rapidly stocked by leading independent bicycle retailers across the UK and Europe and was sold out by the end of the first season. Since then the product range has increased year on year to incorporate a number of different cycling disciplines.

The popularity of Brother Cycles has been down to the quality of design and honesty of the products, and an English heritage in a market dominated by companies from Europe and the USA. With a continued focus on product development and growth of the Brother brand, the company can only go from strength to strength.

Intended impact

Brother was born through the belief that we could take what other brands already do, and do it better. This confidence in our own work is apparent in everything we do. It was our own personal experiences with cycling, and the desire to improve on the products available, which led us to start Brother Cycles.

As keen cyclists we have always followed the maxim that we should only build and sell products that we would want to own ourselves, rather than trying to second guess what other people may be looking for. This gives us the confidence that our products are perfectly designed for their intended purpose.

Every detail of our products is the result of a conscious decision and subsequent testing to ensure its effectiveness. It is this attention to detail that separates us from the competition and creates the 'honesty' behind the brand.

One of the key personal goals for Brother Cycles is to create and share amazing experiences through the use of our products, and inspire our customers to do the same. This is evident through our impressive dialogue with customers on social media. When a customer shares their experiences with us, and our followers, they encourage others to do the same.

This open communication with our customers, combined with the honesty behind our brand and products, creates a business which is in touch with the customer and transparent in its actions. Something which is not always common in the marketplace. It allows us to respond to customer reactions and therefore constantly evolve and improve over time.

Substantial accomplishments to date

In the 5 years since launch we have developed a close working relationship with our frame manufacturer in Taiwan who themselves have over 25 years of experience in the bicycle manufacturing industry.

Sales of Brother Cycles products have been impressive from our launch, with a steady growth year on year:

- The business is currently operating at a net profit of approximately 10%

- Brother Cycles has seen average annual revenue growth of 30% since launch*

- Stocked in over 30 retailers across the globe

Press/Media coverage so far:
- Esquire Magazine
- The Times Luxx Magazine
- Selectism
- Time Out
- Huck Magazine
- Design Week

Brand collaborations:
- Microsoft
- Selfridges
- Levis Jeans
- Albam Clothing

Social Media
- 2,300 Facebook followers
- 2,500 Instagram followers
- 1,800 Twitter followers

and regular consumer generated content through #brothercycles

Last but not least, Guy Ritchie is a proud Brother Cycles owner, often pictured riding his bike around London!

*Source: unaudited management accounts

Monetisation strategy

Brother Cycles has already been successfully trading for over 4 years. The business has a proven sales history and is currently running at a healthy profit.Our aim at the moment is to grow the business to a point that it can be our main source of income - below is how we aim to do this.

There are three keys areas that the business will focus on in order to guarantee substantial growth throughout 2015/16:

Firstly, When the business first launched, the products were sold direct to consumers through the Brother Cycles website. 5 years later and we also now sell to retailers and small distributors. It is this shift towards working with distributors that is key to the growth of Brother Cycles in the future.

Working directly with consumers and independent retailers has been useful in growing the Brother brand, and will continue to be in the future, however selling stock in greater volume is necessary for greater profitability. Creating partnerships with a European, N American and Asian distributor, who would sell Brother Cycles products on our behalf, will be the main focus for Brother throughout 2015.

Additionally we would seek to increase sales volumes through an expansion in the product range. We have proven in 2014, with the release of the Kepler frameset, that the brand can find big success outside of the urban cycling market. In 2015 and beyond we intend to continue this expansion into other areas of cycling with a strong focus on product development.

As a final point, Brother Cycles currently only produces bicycle framesets which consumers and retailers use to build custom bicycles. In 2015 we will begin development of the first Brother Cycles complete bike. Offering a complete bicycle will allow the brand to be stocked in far more retailers. Equally a complete bicycle offers better profit margins and is therefore essential to the growth of the company.

Use of proceeds

2015 will see a considered increase in marketing and advertising spend, continued development and broadening of the product range and most importantly a focus on increasing its routes to markets round the world, mainly through building relationships with North American and Asian distributors.

We believe that the setting up of new distribution channels, business development and increased sales activity can be achieved without the need for additional staff. To date we have grown the company with only a very limited amount of time, typically no more than 2-3 days a week in total. To be able to commit fully to the company will drastically increase what we can achieve and the speed with which we can achieve it.

In order to do this the we are looking to raise capital to allow us to commit 100% of our time to the company and to invest in the areas of the business that need growth as outlined above:

- Salaries and professional fees 50%
- Product development and testing 10%
- Advertising and marketing 15%
- Trade shows and promotional activity 5%
- Increase in stock levels 20%​