News
Cycle2worknow.com launched
Mark Sutton Jun 3 2008, 3:23pm
New tax-free salary-sacrifice bike-buying scheme launched
www.cycletoworknow.com has launched, offering consumers a way to get heavily discounted bikes via their employers. Using the Cycle to Work scheme, employers can help staff obtain a brand new bike and safety equipment worth up to £1,000. The employee then signs a salary sacrifice arrangement to pay for the bike monthly, meaning they can save up to 50 per cent of the retail price of bike and equipment. The employer also gets a tax break to encourage them.
Rob Howes of Mercury Square, the company behind the scheme, said: "Holcros Cycles are the retailers we’re working with. They will normally assemble the bike and make sure everything works before re-boxing it and delivering to the end user.
"The major plus we offer as opposed to the likes of Cyclescheme, Halfords etc. is that any size business can use our platform and it’s much quicker. There is no reason why a business can’t run the scheme on Monday and the employees be cycling by the weekend."
The website has a extensive list of commuter bikes, electrics, folders, hybrids, mountain, road and touring bikes from brands such as Dawes, Claud Butler and Izip, to name a few. Accessories and helmets are also listed on the website.
Howes added: "Until now C2W wasn’t really available to the employees of small to medium sized enterprises and it wasn’t really visible to anyone who didn’t have cause to go into a bike shop. We think CycleToWorkNow.com changes that and brings all the benefits of cycling to many more people who maybe rode a bike in their youth but gave it up long ago. If we can do that and make C2W more visible to the 12,000,000 SME employees then that has to benefit everyone in the bike business."
The bike-buying tax break is explained fully here.
Comments
“Bad news”
Posted by: Marc - Jun 3, 11:01pm
This is nothing bud bad news for IBD's. Cyclescheme is working just great for us. Why do the manufacturers have to set this up and go direct to the consumer? This is a kick in the balls for the us.
Dawes and claude butler are owned by the same company, right? And why are Moore Large in on this as well, being the distributors of Haro? They are already to bloody mercenary for me, supplying etc.
tescos
I think I'm going to boycott them as I can get everything from my other, much more conciencious suppliers.
“Re: Bad news”
Posted by: casa k - Jun 3, 11:47pm
From the article, are Holcros Cycles not the main supplier for this on line service? This would mean that it is not the manufacturers that are behind it. Certainly, all the pictures on the cycle 2 work page look as though they have been taken from the Holcros website. If it is a retailer that is supplying the bikes, can you really take the huff with the manufacturers? They also have Merida bikes listed if ayone wants to know.
“Re: Bad news”
Posted by: Nick Harvey - Jun 4, 9:11am
Mercury Square Ltd, the company behind cycle2worknow, claim on their website "We designed, built and run the Halfords' cycle to work application for them. They are bringing C2W to some of the major names in British business using our products."
“Actually very good news for the trade!”
Posted by: Rob Howes - Jun 9, 12:36pm
Only bad news if you can't see even the slightest bit of the bigger picture. I got my bike from C2WNow and had a really good experience. Since then I've been into several LBS and bought over £100 worth of kit, tools, accessories etc. Now, before C2W I hadn't been into a LBS for years so they were clearly were failing to attract me and people like me to the benefits of C2W. Those LBS owe that additional business to C2WN! It seems perfectly clear to me that the more people who get a bike, the more trade will be generated and that's good for the industry as a whole.