Giant launches second UK store with more to follow
Posted on in Cycles News
The second Giant brand store to hit the UK will be run by an independent dealer, situated in the historic city of Cambridge, the store is located close to the city centre and train station, in a vicinity jam-packed with leisure facilities and eateries - a hot spot with locals.
This pocket sized second edition to the Giant brand store family - covers 150 square metres; small, yet perfectly formed the store offers customers a unique insight into Giant's cycling world.
See photos of the store (click to view):
Ian Beasant, Managing Director of Giant UK commented "...Cambridge is a unique cycling City; a City well and truly ready for a brand store..."
The new store is launched in partnership with local cycle retailer Charlie Warboy, owner of Station Cycles, who commented: "I'm delighted to partner with Giant on this project, this store will be the core of the local community, I'm confident that the store will be a huge success"
Inside view
The Cambridge store follows closely on the launch of the 1000 sqf Liverpool store in June. Two further stores are planned for launch before the end of this year, with the next due mid-August and which we are told will be "massive".
Talking to Ian Beasant from Giant UK you pick up on three things which he and Giant want to achieve with these new stores.
The first is to grow brand awareness. Beasant points out that most of the population have no idea about bike brands, and therefore a retail presence gives Giant and its dealers an opportunity to educate a much wider audience of new and potential customers.
The second and related point is to develop a high quality retail environment, enabling customers to see and understand the variety of choice available and benefit from the added value this can offer.
The Liverpool store - known as Bike Beat - displays over 100 bikes across the full Giant range. This has already reaped rewards according to Beasant, with initial sales across 57 different bike products. In addition Beasant says clothing and accessory sales have been very strong because of depth of stock and proper merchandising.
Beasant is keen to stress that all Giant dealers can benefit from this project. He believes building a better known brand will create wider awareness of quality product which can drive sales across the dealer base. In addition what Giant learns from this project it can also pass on to its dealers to help better support their businesses.
Beasant stresses he needs to make a return on his investment in these new stores, which means Giant are in for the long term to ensure they work.
With Giant, Trek and Specialized all now involved in retail programmes the future landscape of UK cycle retailing could be changing significantly in the next few years.
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