Half of Britain’s bike shops are operating at a loss, warns profits barometer firm

According to Plimsoll Publishing, at least half of Britain’s bike shops are operating at a loss.  The claim is contained in a report published by the profits barometer firm earlier this month. 345 limited-company bike shops were included in the report, out of a total of more than 1500 (not all of which operate as limited companies).

Plimsoll Publishing takes data collated by Companies House and runs the publically-available data through the “Plimsoll Analysis” – this flags up which limited companies are doing well, which are loss making and which are the “best takeover targets.”

According to the company’s latest analysis, 102 of the bike shops analysed were “in danger” and 142 out of 345 were making a loss. 81 of the loss makers were reporting their second year in the red. “These serial loss makers …. often [undercut] the rest of the market and [drive] down profit margins across the board,” claims Plimsoll in a boilerplate statement.

Last year BikeBiz reported that bike shop closures were running at their highest rate since the 1960s.