Manchester headquartered Insync Bikes has been named one of the fastest growing Indian-owned companies in the UK after seeing growth of 43pc in the last year.
Insync Bikes is owned by India’s Hero Cycles, the world’s biggest pedal bike manufacturer, and the company has just accepted a Tracker Award in London after appearing in Grant Thornton’s annual India meets Britain tracker report produced with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The tracker report was formerly launched in the capital and tracks Indian owned companies with a turnover of more than £5 million and year-on-year revenue growth of at least 10 per cent and a minimum two-year track record in the UK. Out of 37 Indian owned companies meeting the criteria the report named Insync as the seventh fastest growing in Britain.
Lord Gerry Grimstone Minister for Investment in the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) presented the Tracker Award to Gopal Krishan, Insync’s Head of Business at the event.
Insync Bikes Executive Director Raman Awasthi said Insync sold more than 50,000 bikes in retail in the year to November 2020, a 200 per cent increase on the previous year. It sold a further 186,000 bikes in 2021.
Raman said sales are being driven by surge in the demand for bikes as a healthier form of commuting and exercise. The lockdown in 2020 saw cycling increase by as much as 300pc according to Cycling Industry News with interest also being encouraged by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s investment of £2bn in a cycling and walking strategy. In another boost to Insync, when Mr Johnson announced the strategy, he rode one of Insync’s Viking bikes at a press call.
Raman said women’s hybrid and mountain bikes and children’s bikes, in the affordable range of £350-£500 experienced unprecedented levels of demand in 2020/21, and the business is now looking to expand its offering.
He said: “We are honoured to receive this prestigious award. Hero Cycles is committed to investments in the UK and to helping establish a deeper, more mutually beneficial relationship between the UK and India. Insync Bikes is a shining example of that. I’m sure with the truly global talent resource we have in our organisation we will further write this story. We thank Grant Thornton and CII for recognising our growth in this report. Insync Bikes now has around 10pc of the UK bike market and we plan to double that to around 20pc in the next two years with a focus on a premium range of bikes and a new range of e-bikes, launched as part of our new partnership with the German e-bike manufacturer HNF GmbH, which is also a Hero International company and will bring German precision research and development to the UK.”
Raman said sales from independent bike dealers (IBDs) have contributed significantly to the growth, with the business looking to increase its network of shops from 300 in 2019 to 700 by 2022.
Raman said Insync is planning major shipments of bikes including ebikes, road bikes, kids bikes and womens bikes throughout 2022. He added that the recruitment of IBDs as a volume driver has been supported, in part, by the company’s ability to quickly scale up manufacturing due to its manufacturing capability in India and Sri Lanka.
In April Insync announced plans to add a new e-cycle assembly line within its manufacturing facility in Manchester which will produce high-end, IoT enabled electric cycles and push bikes for customers in the UK and EU. The new assembly line forms part of a £150m group wide investment and is expected to be operational by August 2022 and produce 50,000 bikes over three years and scale up to a capacity of 30,000 bikes annually.
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