Evans Cycles opens first of two huge new stores after posting £23m loss

Evans Cycles has today opened the first of two new high-street stores, just weeks after it posted a pre-tax loss of £23.2 million.

The new store on Union Street in the centre of Bristol has room for 150 bikes to be on display on it 3,300sqft premises.

The site is just around the corner from the existing shop the chain had occupied for over a decade.

The first 150 customers at the store today will be guaranteed a prize from a raffle with a prize pot totalling £6,500 worth of goods.

Russell Merry, managing director of Wheels at Frasers Group, which has owned Evans in 2018, said the Bristol opening showed the company was “committed to investing in and improving the locations we currently occupy” alongside opening new stores.

He added: “We remain big believers in bricks-and-mortar retail for cycling.

“Bikes are a considered purchase, and customers value the guidance of a knowledgeable team member as well as being able to see and touch the bike in front of them, before making a choice.”

Next month the chain is set to open its second new store in Sheffield’s Meadowhall Centre.

The openings follow Evans’s launch of a sale with reductions of up to 90% earlier this month. The sale coincided with the Fraser Group owned brand reporting pre-tax loss of £23.2 million in the financial year to April 2023.

That represented a worsening of the firm’s performance from a loss of £5.3 million the year before. 

An increase in floor space had boosted revenue from £45.3 million to £45.8 million according to the report, but “administrative expenses” were blamed for the increase in losses.

The report said: "Management believes the company has performed strongly in the period, even with the well publicised supply chain issues with bicycles.”

Evans is now a sister company of online retailer Wiggle CRC, after the online giant was bought out of administration by Frasers Group in March this year.