A popular Dublin bike shop has taken delivery of its largest ever consignment of bikes just in time to fill Christmas orders, with Woom bikes helping secure a bumper year for the shop.
The photos of almost 200 Woom bikes – for children – was shared
by Donnybrook Bikes, whose staff told stickybottle the delivery had arrived
just in time to ensure bikes ordered for kids this Christmas would reach them.
A total of 270 bikes were ordered by the shop during the
summer months, such was the demand from customers.
And now that about 190 of them have arrived, with around
80 more still to come, staff said they would struggle to fit them into the
premises overnight.
Ruairi Parsons, the general
manager at Donnybrook Bikes, said the delivery today and last minute
pre-Christmas rush had brought to an end a hectic year when the seemingly insatiable
demand for bikes never eased off.
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“We’ve been out the door; really, really busy this year.
We had a mad summer and we thought it would slow down but it didn’t.”
He added trade at the shop had increased about four-fold
on previous years and that he and his colleagues had never experienced anything
like 2020 since the business opened almost seven years ago.
As the pandemic hit and more and more people took to their
bikes, the shop was taking calls from all over the country looking to buy new
bikes.
The pressure of trying to keep up with servicing customer’s
bikes was also at an all time high as many people moved to get their bikes in
order so they could join the cycling boom gripping the country.
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“It’s like winning the lottery,” Parsons said of the year
the shop has just had. “There are businesses out there who are really struggling
because of Covid-19 and you’d feel for them. But it has been huge for us.”
He added while the early months of any year can typically
be quiet for bike shops, he wondered if 2021 would buck that trend, especially
given the new round of Covid-19 lock-down restrictions announced by the
Government on Tuesday.
Donnybrook Bikes stocks a wide range of bikes including Trek, Giant, Fugi, Focus, Dawes, Peugeot and Ridgeback, among others.
However, it’s the Austrian brand Woom, which makes bikes for kids, that has led the way this year.
“We’re the only ones selling the bikes in Ireland and we’ve
had calls from everywhere - from Cork to Donegal – from people asking us if we
have them,” Parsons said.
“They are fantastic bikes and they’ve also been
incredibly well marketed from Austria by Woom.”
He added while Woom was a high-end kid’s bike, they were
only marginally more expensive than rival brands.
Parsons said the bikes were ideal for children starting to cycle as they were made of aluminium and were “incredibly light”.
The large sprocket on the back also made them easier for children to pedal while the upright handlebars were adjustable and offered kids’ a choice of positions.
Parsons said the near 200 bikes that arrived in the shop
today were all from Woom, with about half of them already sold and the other
half for the New Year market.
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