Global Brand Closes Majority of Australian Stores

Melbourne, Victoria

An international success story that originated in Melbourne, Reid Cycles, has announced it is closing several Australian stores in a restructuring of its retail network “in response to market conditions”.

Reid closed its Adelaide shop about a month ago and outlets in Melbourne and Sydney are set to follow as the company aims to “right-size the business for sustained profitability within Australia”.

It says the Sydney shop will close in mid-April and the decision has also been made to close two locations in Melbourne, Ascot Vale and Dandenong.

The company will focus its efforts on its better-performing locations in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, as well as online sales.

It says the remaining Melbourne location, in Richmond, will be a singular, high-volume store for the city; a model Reid says worked well with its former North Melbourne site.

“These decisions were taken due to trading conditions, lease options coming up for renewal and challenges in recruitment and retention,” company founder James Reid says in a statement.

“The business has matured, and we have options. In Australia, we’ve made the decision to focus resources on our online operations, and best-run and most profitable stores.”

He said the adjustments to the company also included a more integrated approach to Reid’s Australian operations and its growing international activities.

They will be accompanied by the release of more Reid products in Australia, including e-mobility ranges attracting healthy international sales.

Reid’s Evolution

Reid started in a Melbourne garage in 2009 and has since sold more than 250,000 Reid-branded bikes in this country.

The brand is also distributed in over 30 countries around the world and has a significant supply contract business serving some of the biggest names in global retail. This operation, along with all product design, is run from the company’s international headquarters in the UK as Reid Bikes Ltd.

“Our Reid Bikes Ltd team looks after the distribution and supply contract side of the business and is growing strong, with new distributors joining and new supply customers continuing to come on board,” James said.

“Given the challenges in the industry, we’ve taken a hard look at our operations and settled on a more integrated approach between our Australian and international operations. We’ve restructured to better share knowledge, software and resources.”

He said Reid has just completed a major technology upgrade across its Australian retail business, to create a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that achieves more streamlined operations and closer ties to the systems used by its global team.

“Over the course of the past 12 months, we have reviewed every piece of software and every workflow in the business,” James said.

“A case of taking a step back to build a solid foundation again, to then move forward at pace in our home market.”

“This new ERP system is the result of that investment and is already showing significant time and cost savings, plus it opened the door to innovations we’ve been talking about since we started the business.”

New Group CEO

As part of this restructure, Reid Bikes Ltd managing director Rob Akam – who was previously general manager of Reid Cycles – has been appointed as group CEO to work more closely with the Australian team in Reid’s new phase of operation.

Rob said the company sees the retail restructure as “a case of taking a step back to build a solid foundation again, to then move forward at pace in our home market”.

“We’re still very much an Australian brand at heart, and we’re committed to long-term success in Australia,” he said.

“Reid is now a significant global brand and supplier – manufacturing close to 200,000 bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters per year.

“This success has been achieved by our experienced, skilled and passionate team in the UK, and now is the time to bring both sides of the business more closely together in operations.

“Our Reid Cycles B2C business model connects us directly with end users of our products, and those users, our customers, are at the heart of all the decisions we make.

“We are also excited for more of the newly developed products to enter the Australian market – especially our e-mobility ranges that are selling really well around the world.”