A year in review – 2023

Summary

We will restructure this business stream in 2024 to reflect the recovery of bike sales over the next 2-3 years.

To counteract that, all those new cyclists have been looking for experiences and we have seen strong growth in both our tours and bike hire businesses. These business streams are our focus for growth in 2024.

Our strengthening brand has allowed us to expand our own Eat Sleep Cycle product line in 2023. We will continue to invest in our own product line in 2024.

The inevitable burst of the retail bubble with an upside

Eat Sleep Cycle benefited greatly from the cycling retail growth fueled by COVID. Our retail business grew exponentially, we took on new bike brands, gained local customers and developed an online shop. In 2023 all that ended quite dramatically with a sharp decrease in new bike demand. Overstocking by manufacturers has resulted in heavy discounting and reduced margin on new bike sales too.

On the plus side, retail sales of kit, merchandise and other accessories were up significantly in 2024, a really positive signal for our future retail business model. The opening of our dedicated Girona apparel store and Málaga hub are the ingredients for this success. Having physical points of sale (while large online retailers suffer) has been an advantage to add value for customers in 2023.

Overall, our retail tickets and items per ticket are up significantly in 2023 compared to 2022.

In 2024 we will focus more on high rotation items like kit and accessories and less on new bike sales. We will have stronger collaborations with less bike brands.

Bike hire domination

Now in our eighth year of delivering bike hire in Girona, this experience, knowledge and dedication to service shone through in 2023. With a dedicated bike hire center and brand new bike fleet (not just bikes, helmets and accessories too), 2023 was our best year yet. Girona continues to grow in popularity compared to destinations like Mallorca.

The addition of our Málaga Hub and offering bike hire in Andalucía has strengthened our Winter operation and greatly supported the growth of this business stream.

Tours well and truly back as our focus

Eat Sleep Cycle was founded as a cycling tours business, if COVID helped us launch a retail business (while travel was as good as banned), 2023 has been the year we are well and truly back to our origins. We have seen a full recovery from pre-covid tour numbers.

In 2023 we have invested in developing new trips and established a great team at our new Headquarters. We ran our first departures in Tuscany and have seen strong growth in tours in Andalucía. We have made some successful collaborations, for example with the Badlands ultra event.

In 2024 we will run our first trips in Portugal, Patagonia, Uganda and Sicily, it’s set to be a huge year!

Community was a key focus

In 2023 we’ve run hundreds of social rides, events and gatherings. Many of them in collaboration with our partner brands. As well as in Girona we’ve run weekly events in Malaga. We’ve been determined to not let the downturn in the cycling retail sector impact our support of the local community. Celebrating our 7th Anniversary in Girona & 1st Anniversary in Málaga, we saw a strong turnout from the community. This will continue to be a main priority in 2024.

Our own product, our own brand

Our in-house designer, Raúl, launched several new Eat Sleep Cycle kit collections in 2023, these collections have been really popular in our cycling hubs (with local and foreign customers alike) and we’d like to expand this activity to online sales in 2024. Because it’s our own product that nobody else sells there is no price war. We make the product locally with local materials and we make to order to avoid overstocking and waste.

Conclusion – A stabilising year

Following the exponential grown of the retail business during COVID, 2023 has been a stabilising year, with the shrinkage in that business being made up by the growth in our tours and bike hire businesses. Once again we have proven that our diversity makes us stronger.

The Eat Sleep Cycle brand and identity grows from strength to strength and now in our 8th year our experience and knowledge is coming through in the quality of delivery.

2024 will see significant tour business growth, restructure in the retail business and more focus on our own brand. Let’s get the wheels rolling!