Desert Island Stores: Andy Smallwood, CEO of Pashley Cycles
In his latest Desert Island Stores interview, Glynn Davis chats with Andy Smallwood, chief executive of Pashley Cycles.
The store you remember from childhood?
Subscribe to TRBGrowing up in Nottingham in the early 90s there is one store that sticks in my mind. As a young cyclist there was a bike shop called Langdale Lightweights. In its original location it was a small Aladdin’s cave of a shrine to all things racing bike with a small front window showcasing the latest hand-built masterpiece.
My memories are of a naturally authentic experience – the visual of hand-built steel frames in a multitude of colours hanging from the ceiling, the very best of Italian components in well-used glass cabinets, the TV in the corner showing historic races, and the well-versed conversation combined with the aroma of oil and tyre rubber. I’ve only experienced this in a proper bike shop.
As a young cyclist you couldn’t help but be inspired by the claustrophobic immersion into racing cycling and at one point I even managed to get enough money together to buy one of their steel frames – so they must have been doing something right.
Most inspirational store to your career?
I have a few…
Firstly, The Boardman Performance Centre. When it opened more than a decade ago, it was truly ground-breaking. We created a holistic brand, retail and athlete performance facility complete with wind-tunnel, aimed not just at the elite but any cyclist looking to improve their cycling performance. Not only did it capture the professional cyclist Chris Boardman’s world-class credentials, but it also positioned Boardman as one of the UK’s leading bike brands in an all-immersive experience. It was truly unique and, in my opinion, has never been surpassed.
From an omni-channel perspective it has to be the vision and immersive experience created at Ribble. The roll-out of physical brand showrooms and live video chat seamlessly brought together physical and digital retail combined with a full sensory brand experience – all of which offered genuine benefits to the customer. The destination, flagship showroom we created in Clitheroe, Lancashire, is a showcase of how the physical experience becomes an extension of the digital and vice versa.
From an authentic experience perspective, what we are creating at Pashley is truly unique and takes immersion to the next level. By bringing our showroom into the heart of the workshop, our customers can not only view and test ride our high-quality diverse range of classic and contemporary bicycles, but they can also get the multi-sensory experience of how their bicycle will be hand-crafted by our artisans. From the machining of the high-quality tubing, crafting of the frame by hand, to finishing and final assembly, all here in our Stratford-upon-Avon workshop. In an increasingly digital and commoditised world the authentic physical experience is more important than ever, especially for a highly considered and bespoke purchase like a Pashley bicycle.
Most frequently used store?
Over the years I’ve become a connoisseur of cookies and I have to say that before you go down the specialist cookie maker route, M&S is by far the current convenient and consistent market leader. From a frequency perspective it would therefore have to be M&S Food…It’s a good job I ride a bike!
The store you wished you’d created?
I’ve got a clear vision of where I want to take the Pashley retail experience, and I want to do it yesterday, so this is the store I wish I had already created.
Your overall favourite store?
I’m definitely a product person at heart and I love attention to detail. I remember on a trip to Paris a few years ago I visited the Peugeot retail experience on the Champs-Élysées, at the time the theme was their rally heritage past and present, featuring a classic 205 T16 Group B car right through to a Paris Dakar conceptual monster. The reason it got my interest and stuck in my mind was that this retail experience wasn’t what I was expecting from the brand and was completely at odds with my pre-conception. It showed that through surprise, excitement and theatre, you can radically change perception.
The store you’d like to take to the desert island?
I think there is an opportunity to combine my love of cycling and cookies. I’d take the authentic bike shop with a good selection of demo-bikes (with careful tyre choice due to the sandy terrain) to burn off all the freshly baked cookies.
