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news
KTM 2023“If you voted for Brexit, please realise this is 90% because of your decision”: UK cycle distributor FLi ceases trading
Brexit’s impact on the UK’s cycling industry is once again under the spotlight after FLi Distribution’s director blamed the “red tape and barriers to trade” currently affecting businesses as the Huddersfield-based distributor ceased trading with immediate effect.
FLi – which began life in 2008 as FLi Race Team Management, before transitioning to distribution – was known for supplying KTM bikes to the UK for over a decade, a relationship which ended in April this year.
The distributor notified dealers and suppliers of its decision to cease trading earlier this month, with director Colin Williams citing the impact of Brexit, the complexities and restrictions surrounding UK and EU trading, and the difficulties facing the bike industry in the post-Covid lockdown period as the main reasons behind FLi’s demise.
> The rising price of cycling — why are bikes more expensive and how is the industry coping?
Confirming the news, Williams posted on LinkedIn: “That’s it, FLi is done. Thank you to everyone who’s supported FLi over the past 15-plus years… it would not have been possible without all of you who’ve helped out in thousands of ways, making 99 percent of my time running FLi so much fun. So if you’ve helped in any way, thank you, it’s been a great ride.
“But if you voted for Brexit, please realise this is 90 percent because of your decision back in 2016. I have no idea what will be next, but as the people close to me know, whatever it is, it’ll be better than the last 18 months.
“I’m done fighting, I’m done with the red tape and the barriers to trade. It hadn’t been fun for some time, so the time was right to end it now, life is too short. The relief now the decision is made is amazing, but I am so sorry for any negative impacts it will have on anyone and I’m doing my best to resolve any and all of them where I can.”
Earlier this year, Williams told the road.cc Podcast that the bottom line of companies in the UK bike industry is being squeezed like never before, thanks to the supply chain and manufacturing disruption brought on by the pandemic, as well as the impact of Brexit on trade.
He explained that because many brands service the European market through distribution operations within the EU, this means that typically products will arrive in the UK from the bloc – adding on not just administrative burdens but also costs for distributors and retailers here.
> Bike industry turmoil continues as UK cycle distributor 2pure enters administration
Those additional costs have had a crippling effect on the UK’s cycling distributors, with FLi the latest in a growing line of distribution companies to cease trading this year alone.
In May, Livingston-based distributor 2pure entered administration, just months after the company announced that it was restructuring to focus solely on the cycling industry, following what it described as a “highly volatile” 2022 caused by macro-economic events in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
And in March, Moore Large, the leading UK distributor for well-known brands such as Tern Bicycles, Lake, Forme, ETC, Emmelle, and MeThree, entered liquidation, leading to its £35 million product inventory being auctioned off.
> Forme bikes and Lake cycling shoes distributor enters liquidation
Formed from the bike shop opened by John Moore in 1947, the Derby-based distributor was founded 30 years later and owned by the Moore family up until last year when, following growth since the pandemic, the board’s directors bought ownership from the family.
Dale Vanderplank, Adam Garner, Adam Biggs, and Andrew Walker acquired the business on 19 April 2022, with retiring chairman Nigel Moore at the time saying that the “last few years have been particularly successful and it is now the right time for me to hand over the company to the existing management team”.
However, four months ago the company confirmed its closure, adding to an increasingly bleak time for a UK cycle industry beset by inflation, changing consumer habits, overstock, and a challenging economic climate.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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153 comments
I suspect it would not be popular, especially with any racist Brexiteers. This was my original point which I don't think I've explained very well. Racist people obviously didn't realise how our old immigration system was stacked against non white countries so I believe they should have voted remain.
I never stated I was for or against any area of free movement. I said "I'm not against the concept of free movement of people in an agreed area, I'm against race being the deciding factor". If that is incoherent then I apologise.
okay so..free movement areas
New Zealand- Australia, geographically close.
UK -Ireland, geographically close.
Proposed African free movement - geographically close
Eu free movement - based on race only.
Where is your idea that the EU set up was soley based on race come from while my other examples are not?
Sorry, I'm clearly doing a terrible job explaining myself.
1. My problem is with the UK, not the EU. Our immigration system was fair (ish) then it was racist, now it can be fair again if we want it to be.
2. Brexit supporting racists thought they were voting for a 'whiter' immigration policy but we had one already.
Nothing more, nothing less. No comment on the EU, Africa, NZ/AUS or ROI/UK. No wish to insult or berate anyone who voted differently to me. No particular wish to argue with anyone (which is why I try to resist the urge to post on EU matters), just my opinion.
I almost lost the will to live on this one to be honest! 😃 And if I'm being totally honest I'm still not sure your position but hey this has gone on far longer than either of us needs lol
Have a good evening (Knee bloke can still Fck off though 😉)
Thanks, you too (the good evening, not the other).
user name much?
I'm aware of the triggering nature of the user name so I thought posting this was poking a little fun at myself;
Given that 95% of the posters here seem to be pro EU I usually leave these discussions alone but sometimes I can't resist giving you all the benefit of my wisdom, or spouting a complete load of cobblers depending on your viewpoint. I'm good with either.
Another Brexiter trivialising and making light of the devastating effect their choice is having and will have on people's livelihoods and futures.
Just off out on my bike to get some more popcorn.
Completely off topic, but in the car the other day, I saw in the mirror a driver approaching at a bit more than the speed limit. Immediately looked down at the dash to see their approach speed. Oh... no radar !
Still difficult to believe that folk thought UK politicians on their own could do a better job than when moderated by the European concensus.
I must admit I never expected the UK population would be daft enough to elect BJ, since he has been in charge things have gone downhill fast and nobody since has shown any signs of being able to fix it!
Moderated? With continued EU expansion our bill was going up but our actual influence was going down! Then there's the corrupt way the EU Commission gets its own way, for example passing a bill that the minority of MEPs voted for. This was due to a voting error, they corrected the voting record but kept the bill anyway. It stinks.
It's what The Country voted for. All of it. Every blade of grass. Not even close.
dOn'T yOu BeLiEvE iN dEmOcRaCy??!?!
Yes - where is it?
I'm liking this different form of pedantry from swldxer.
WING MIRRORS
*retires to safe distance*
*standing next to you
WD-40 - great lubricant
road bike disc brakes - weight, complexity and expense anyone?
Metro brochure from 1980.
Not too sure what your point is. Are you for democratically taken decisions, or against? Or does that depend on whether you agree with the outcome? As to the two legislatures you highlight - what's the relevance? Neither of them took the decision.
If you want a decision on leaving the EU, you don't ask Alf and Doris down the whelk stall at Clacton who hate foreigners, because they have no clue as shown here. Best leave these things to people who know what they are talking about, not racist thickos.
We should probably just strip all working class people of the vote.
They simply don't understand what's good for them.
Surprisingly the "record" wage growth was generated by lots of stikes and even the raises from most of those was still less then the cost of living.
The trend is pretty clear prior to Ukraine.
A tighter labour market has led to increasing real wages.
We had a long period of below inflation wage rises between 2008 and 2014, that was probably the biggest single cause of Brexit IMHO.
Could you post the same graph, but showing real (i.e. relative to inflation) rather than nominal wage growth please?
It's a bit misleading otherwise, as people might think that 2% wage growth in 2015 when inflation was basically zero was worse than 8% in 2022 with 10% inflation.
I'm sure it's a simple mistake rather than dishonestly trumpeting half a story in the hope fiscally-unaware readers/voters will be taken in. The corrected graph would look nice on the side of a bus.
Certainly.
Barring the statistical quirks of 2020 we've have good real wage growth up until the effects of Ukraine.
Prior to 2016 we'd had a long period of negative real wage growth.
Not really, no https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64970708
Your own link shows real wages rising post referendum and falling before it.
Always a great sign that everything's going well - see Germany, 1923.
. (already been done, sorry)
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