Any colour as long as it’s not blackTHE most enduring gag of the BBC’s self-lampooning show, “W1A”, involves the corporation’s fumbling “head of values” grappling with his folding Brompton bike as he arrives at Broadcasting House. Such is the way in which everyday artefacts are transformed into icons of popular culture.
Naturally, there is no fumbling down at the Brompton factory in Brentford, in west London. Lorne Vary, the chief financial officer of the bicycle-maker, shows how he can flip open the bike to make it ready to use in seven seconds flat. A growing army of enthusiasts see the virtues of a Brompton. The company is likely to sell a record 48,000 bikes this year and will soon move to a new factory, doubling its floor space. Turnover, at about £30m ($46m), has been growing by 16% year-on-year, says Mr Vary. Brompton hopes to double sales by 2021.
Brompton is already the country’s largest bike manufacturer, yet the company did not make them on a large scale until the early 2000s. Its rise happened against a backdrop of the almost complete collapse of Britain’s bicycle industry, once a...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Wheels with soul
No comments:
Post a Comment