The bias was heavily weighted towards online throughout April, May and June but we did see a return to a more normalised level of trading throughout the remainder of 2020. However, most of our colleagues at stores were quickly deployed into other duties utilising their skill sets to support the online activity, customer service and operations. Initially, we took the decision to close all but two of our stores as we were seeing a huge spike in online orders, and we were focused on controlling costs. What impact has the pandemic had on the split between online and in-store sales? We have added to the workshop teams to manage the lead times and are busy recruiting apprentices into this crucial area of the business. Our workshops have been and continue to be inundated with work and managing customer expectation with the supply issues surrounding parts has been difficult. The winter period, where we traditionally see a slowing down of sales, did not follow the “normal” pattern and November and February, usually the toughest trading months for us, were incredibly busy.
How has demand changed for bikes, as well as repairs and servicing?ĭemand has remained incredibly high for bikes and PAC as well as repairs and servicing throughout the last 12 months.
The obstacles were enormous, but we are a resourceful, agile team, and I was very pleased with our collective response. However, it was very clear as we entered April that we would have to quickly adapt our head office teams to remote working, add additional resource into our despatch and bike building teams and ensure the safety of our colleagues and customers in our stores that remained open for essential retail. The past 12 months have been incredibly challenging for the business and during those first few days, I really did not know what would happen to consumer demand. How has the past year been for Rutland – how did you adapt to COVID-19 restrictions?
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