ThameNews.Net

25/10/12...Success of Thame bike shop boosted by Bradley! -

A cycle shop in Thame is celebrating its third anniversary in business with the owners sayings it’s exceeded their expectations.

Tim Parsons and David Green opened the cycle repair, sales, servicing, accessories and clothing shop ‘2Wheels’ - at 99b High Street in 2009, with London Mayor Boris Johnson doing the honours. After two years ticking along as they established a customer base and stock to suit, business is really picking up: “Thinking how the economy was when we started, we were happy to be ahead of the bills after two years, but now we’re seeing it suddenly go, which is really encouraging," said David.

SOURCE: Contributed by Iain Nicholson of OTCN (Oxfordshire Towns Chambers Network)

PHOTO: L to R: David Green, Tim Parsons, John Howell MP, Boris Johnson

"The interest generated by Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France, and the cycling wins at The Olympics, the impact of higher petrol prices and the success of Thame as a town overall have combined to give us a boost so that we’re now in a stronger position than we’d imagined.”

Boris Johnson, who attended 2Wheels’ official opening with local MP John Howell, still comes back as a customer - part of a growing customer base. David added: “We’ve learned as we’ve gone along what the customers want rather than what we think. With petrol prices as they are we’ve had people in asking about converting their mountain bikes into road bikes so they can use them to get to work. We’ve also employed a mechanic now to deal with the increasing demand for repairs and that’s gone well too.”

Tim owns the car parts and accessories shop, Autoparts, next door to 2Wheels, and David and he worked there together for six years in the 1990s. They used to do cycle accessories at Autoparts and when the premises that is now home to 2Wheels came on the market they decided to start the cycle sales, repair, accessories and clothing shop.

2Wheels opened in one of four retail premises in Thame owned by Jennings, who run business parks at Chalgrove and Garsington, office centres in Abingdon, Didcot and St Clements, and have units at Berinsfield. Jennings MD, Paul Mabbutt, says: “This is a great story of two guys who had an idea for a business out of one they were already involved in and took an opportunity when it came up. They’ve worked hard through what have been challenging economic times to build a customer base and a reputation, and it’s great to see them doing well and able to celebrate a third anniversary in business.”