Pashley wins £80m ‘Boris Bikes’ deal

PASHLEY Cycles has secured a lucrative contract deal that will see the Stratford company provide bikes for the London bike hire scheme that is more commonly known as Boris’ Bikes after his time as London Mayor.

The £79.7million, five-year contract is due to start in August next year, with an option for it to be extended for a further five years.

The deal has been secured by Serco, which has signed a new contract with Transport for London (TfL) to continue providing, maintaining and distributing the bikes.

Although known as Boris’ Bikes, they are officially called the Santander Cycles as a result of a sponsorship scheme with the Spanish-owned bank.

Under the new contract, Serco will gradually start introducing a new British-made bicycle, which will be assembled at Pashley’s factory in Mason’s Road in Stratford.

They will be ten per cent lighter than the current model and designed to give a more manoeuvrable and comfortable ride, according to the company.

Confirmation of the deal comes as a tremendous boost for the Stratford company, which is one of Britain’s longest established cycle manufacturer and which celebrated its 90th year of designing and hand-building a wide range of bicycles this year.

General manager, Steven Bell, said: “We are delighted to be working on such a prestigious and important scheme.

“We were approached by Serco in early 2015 and became their official bike partner, and have been helping them develop a new product for London since then.

“Although we are still in the product development stage, our research and development team’s design has been selected by TfL as one that meets its requirements.

“We now need to turn that design into a production-ready bike.”

Rupert Soames, Serco chief executive, said: “Since the scheme started in 2010, Serco has worked hard with TfL to improve and grow the service.

“Recently we have started to bring in laserlights to improve rider visibility and in 2018 we will start introducing new lighter bikes and we are delighted to be working with Blaze and Pashley Cycles, two great British companies, to bring in these exciting innovations.

“We aim to build on the past six successful years and deliver an even better service for TfL and everyone in London.”