Boardman bikes have been selling like hotcakes of late. According to recent information from Halfords, they've sold around 21,000 units of the range in their last financial year, a very good sales result, for a very good bike range.
Boardman got it right in terms of his line up and has won lot's of awards for his road bikes which start with the Comp at £699, then flowing through the range with the Team at £899, the Team Carbon at £1199 and the Pro Carbon at £1599 (the Pro Carbon won Cycling Weekly Bike of the Year), not bad for a relatively new entrant to the market.
However, only in the last couple of weeks the Team Carbon has increased in price from £999 to £1199, all a bit sudden. They've sold a lot of this particular model, primarily because the spec for the money is second to none and because it came in at the magical price point of £999. This is the upper ceiling for the Cycle to Work scheme, with most employers limiting spend to £1000 due to them needing to obtain a Consumer Credit Licence if offering bikes over this value. As a result, a huge proportion of this particular model were sold by Halfords on this scheme (Boardman bikes are only available via Halfords).
I'm not sure why this model alone has gone up in price as others in the range have stayed static. What is evident is that it takes one of the most popular choices for Cycle to Work road riders out of reach. I'm sure this will play nicely into the hands of competing brands like Planet X who are still catching this price band with their SL Pro Carbon Ultegra SL bike (another great ride for the money). I'm sure Halfords have their reasons, however I'm sure that recent buyers of the bike will be pretty happy they managed to get one before the price increase (you reading this Gary!).
Boardman continues to build a great reputation for his bikes, focusing primarily on the quality of the frame. Most reviews recommend you to upgrade the wheels when you can afford to aswell as getting it set up properly by a local bike shop, as Halfords have been a bit hit and miss with set-up, according to reviews I've read.
The decision to put the price up will fall into the hands of the competing brands, that's for sure, they'll all be rubbing their hands at the numbers of buyers that want a carbon bike under a grand. Whether the rest of the range will go up in price, we'll see.
My guess would be that they've moved the price point because there's better margin on accesories than whole bikes. So they can still shift the comp and team with a significant excess for the higher margin accessories. Also could be a simple mechanism of exchange rates for taiwanese carbon manufacture.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively there's the old retail trick of bumping a price then marking it down to the previous price to make it seem like a more attractive bargain - so they'd end up marking it as "20% off RRP" which is pretty common in retail, certainly in supermarkets.
Unfortunately, Halford's won't deal with Planet X, so if your employer has chosen Halfords as their C2W provider, you won't be able to get hold of them under the scheme :-(
ReplyDeleteI know, because I tried! You could still get a Dolan Mythos for your £1k though - seems about the next best specced bike for the money.
I went in to Halfords to buy the team carbon bike a couple of weeks ago,to find it had gone up to £1499 i asked what they had changed on the bike in the last week as it had a 2011/2012 model tag on it.The staff said nothing has changed,so dont really want to another 200 pounds because i didnt get it a week sooner,guess i will look at other bikes :)
ReplyDelete