News
Evans Cycles to close Clerkenwell store
Carlton Reid Oct 22 2007, 3:45pm
A bigger one will open near Gray’s Inn Road in Spring 2008
The current store on Gray's Inn Road, London, will close on November 30th. The store, which opened in 2002, originally began life as a dedicated service centre for the retailer’s network of London stores.
The closure does not affect the retailer’s expansion plans with negotiations under way with landlords for a number of new London store locations.
Evans MD Mike Rice said:
“We opened Clerkenwell as a servicing hub, employing six full-time mechanics undertaking all of our London servicing work from free of charge first services to complex servicing and custom builds for our customers.”
Although this model provided the company with efficiencies, London's current cycling boom has seen the demand for servicing outstrip the capacity of the single service centre model, said Rice.
“Even though the Clerkenwell site is less than two miles from a number of other Evans Cycles stores our customers wanted to continue the relationship with their local store. We listened and in 2005 converted Clerkenwell to a standard store and re-established full workshop facilities in all of our other London stores. This massively increased our servicing capacity in London and reinstated the local store relationship that our customers demand.
“The store has been performing well for us providing a steady source of profits. However being only 700 sq ft of retailing, much of it in a basement that requires descending a narrow staircase, this site is our smallest and, to be honest, offers a fairly poor experience to our customers, especially compared to our other London stores such as St Paul’s and Spitalfields.
“When a five year break clause in our lease came up we decided to exercise our option and close the store."
All staff will be relocated to other Evans Cycles stores.
