Islabikes: Cycle firm ceases production amid 'difficult and turbulent time'

Islabikes says it will continue to sell existing stock

A cycle manufacturer, which made its name improving children's bike design, is to end production.

Islabikes was founded in 2005 by triple British cyclo-cross champion Isla Rowntree.

The Shropshire firm said Ms Rowntree and managing director Tim Goodall had decided to shut after a "difficult and turbulent time for the cycle industry".

It has confirmed it will continue to sell existing stock for the time being, and also make spare parts available.

The company is based near Ludlow, having started life 25 miles away near Claverley.

The firm was founded by Isla Rowntree in 2005

Thanking customers in an announcement on the company website, the firm confirmed it remained solvent and had no outstanding creditors.

Its last company accounts show that in December 2022 it had net assets of over £4m and employed 21 people. Ms Rowntree transferred majority ownership to Mr Goodall in 2021 in a management buyout.

Last year, after a fall in the value of the pound prompted by tax cuts in Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget, Mr Goodall told the BBC how Islabikes' costs had risen sharply, prompting his "most worrying" time in business.

Tim Goodall took control of the firm in 2021

The deputy chairman of Ludlow's chamber of commerce, Ian Evans, told BBC Radio Shropshire the firm had helped put the town on the map. "They didn't have a retail outlet in the town centre, but it's the presence of a brand like that," he said. "Then there's the loss of jobs, which in the current climate is beyond sad."

The former director of British Cycling, Dave Mellor, said he was shocked by the news. "The whole industry's in a bit of a mess at the moment. There are loads of people in trouble," he said.

Mr Mellor, who has a cycle shop in Shrewsbury and used to sell Islabikes, said the firm's products had done wonders for children's cycling.

"If a child is put off by a bad experience they're never going to become a cyclist", he explained.

'Monstrously heavy'

Ms Rowntree said she founded the company after being unable to recommend existing children's bikes to her friends.

"They were monstrously heavy, fitted with outsized components and had dreadful brakes that were out of reach," she said.

The brand, which described itself as "premium", moved into adult models and caught the eye of cycling publications and press reviewers alongside more established industry names.

Ms Rowntree claimed the success of her models had influenced the rest of the industry.

"As a result of them following our lead, good quality, well thought out children's bikes are available from multiple places, and for me, that is a wonderful thing," she said.