Stratford’s bike manufacturer Pashley on Brexit, Covid and its new electric, tilting cargo bike
PASHLEY, the Stratford bicycle maker with a world-wide reputation for handmade quality, is about to display its prowess as a pioneer in the field of green technology by revolutionising the delivery of goods in towns and cities.
The company – founded in Birmingham in 1926 before moving to Stratford in the early sixties – has started full production of an electric cargo tricycle known as Alecs (Articulated, Lightweight, Electric, Cargo Solution).
The vehicle is designed to carry 110kg securely at 25kph (15mph) and has a patented tilting front section that means it rides like a bicycle but has the stability of a tricycle. It’s set to change the face of last-mile delivery in areas where vans and trucks are no longer allowed.
Alecs is the product of four years of development at the Pashley factory in Masons Road, where its iconic traditional bicycles and tricycles are hand-built by a small, highly-skilled team before being exported all over the world.
Four years ago the company – one of only a handful of bicycle makers remaining in the UK – had the foresight to see which way the world was moving. “We saw there would be enormous changes to the cargo delivery market of post, parcels and food,” Pashley’s managing director Adrian Williams told the Herald. “And we came up with Alecs.”
He added: “While we have been doing extensive testing over the past year we’ve seen that market expanding substantially. The market worldwide is £1 billion. It is growing, and it’s expected to grow at 11 per cent per annum in the next ten years.
“In urban and city environments vans have been excluded. Delivery people have to find hubs where they can drop off parcels, and from these hubs deliveries can be made with electric-assisted tricycles or fully electric vans. But the vans are more expensive and need licences and everything else, as if they are cars. The main thing is you don’t need a licence to operate Alecs.”
Pashley is already a world leader in micromobility, making bikes and ebikes for two of the UK’s biggest hire bike fleets – the Santander sponsored Bike Share scheme in London (previously known as Boris bikes) and West Midlands Cycle Hire, operating in and around Birmingham.
Alongside the manufacture of its distinctive leisure cycles, the company had already built an unrivalled reputation in the cargo industry, making cargo and carrier products for use by a multitude of businesses at home and overseas, including Royal Mail’s famed red “postie” bikes.
Having completed exhaustive tests on Alecs, production is now under way with a demo fleet being made available for businesses to trial it in their own delivery operation. And by being in control of the whole process Pashley can discuss and respond to its customers’ individual requirements of colour, box size and branding as required.
The purchase price will depend on specifications, but the starting figure is £9,500.
“The response so far has been excellent,” said Mr Williams. “From small businesses needing a delivery solution or a better way to get equipment to their customers, to large organisations like Royal Mail, who have been involved in our development programme for the Alecs.”
But tricycles like Alecs have an application beyond business. “What we’ve found is that they can be used as a ‘second family car’,” said Mr Williams. “People in London are starting to use these kind of vehicles to do their shopping and take their children to school. It’s a massive change in people’s habits.”
Like most other companies Pashley has been affected both by Brexit and by Covid, though in different ways.
“Brexit didn’t have a major effect initially, but then we found it more difficult to trade with Europe, and that is very frustrating,” said Mr Williams. “We took this vehicle to the International Cargo Show in Holland to get some feedback from various customers there. To do the paperwork was incredibly tortuous. Previously it was very straightforward. Because of the extra burden of administration required by our customers, that’s also been problematic. Much more is needed now to get deliveries into Europe.”
Regarding Covid, he said: “Although it was very challenging for a lot of people, for those in the bicycle industry there was a significant increase in demand because people were having to be very careful about moving around. There was also a demand for bicycles for leisure activity. It was very positive.”
But there was a supply issue, because demand was so high and it was a challenge to produce all the bikes that were wanted. “In the first three weeks we were fully furloughed, following government guidelines,” said Mr Williams. “We only had four people working at that time [out of a staff of 50].
“We had to stay open because we supplied the Santander scheme, which is used by NHS workers.”
He added: “At that time we had about £250,000 of finished stock to be sold. Within three months the stock was sold out and we had nothing in the building.” That accounted for around 500 bicycles.
“After Covid the market place cooled off because many people had bought their bikes and then there were higher interest rates and more challenging living conditions,” he said. “We have reacted to that by focusing on markets that are growing, where there’s pull and growth, in the Middle East and Far East, including China.”
Mr Williams is very proud of Pashley. He’s been working there for 30 years, which is a significant part of his working life. “Many people don’t realise how special Pashley is,” he said. “They know about Shakespeare, but on a global basis Pashley really is a special business because there’s nothing quite like it that is left.”
