Mountain bike retailer gears up for further growth after Two Zero scaleup support

A mountain bike store based near Blackburn which has seen rapid growth of its team and expansion of its physical space is working with Lancashire County Council’s scaleup service to develop a structure which will support its continued development over the coming years.

MTB Monster, which was formed in 2014, sells and services a range of off-road electric bikes and mountain bikes in addition to selling mountain bike accessories and parts through both its physical store and website.

The company has seen consistent strong growth in the past 7-8 years and now employs 17 members of staff. It has also continually grown its space to support this. It currently occupies four business units that house its showroom, storage, and workshop at its site at Fairfield Business Park.

The company’s founder Paul Hoyle has been working with the Scaleup Leaders Network, a targeted scaleup support programme operated by Lancashire County Council’s scaleup support service Two Zero.

The programme is helping the company to improve productivity, profitability and develop a business strategy to prepare for the next phase of its growth.

Paul Hoyle, founder, MTB Monster, said: “After a few years of operating, we developed a small team which included my wife who decided to move across from teaching to join full time. Shortly after, we moved into a bigger building and took on additional staff as the business continued to grow.

“We’ve got a fantastic team now and we’re looking forward to what is next. Two Zero has really contributed to the decisions that are required to take our business to that next level.”

Two Zero is a business support service for scaleup business leaders in Lancashire, its mission is to help Lancashire’s scaleup leaders learn, grow their business 20 per cent and create jobs. Two Zero’s fully funded Scaleup Leaders Network was launched in 2022 and is delivered by Lancashire-based high growth business consultancy Cube Thinking. 

It includes one-to-one performance and leadership coaching, group scaleup masterclasses and peer group learning with other high-growth business leaders.

Paul believes the performance coaching aspect of the programme has been among the most valuable for MTB Monster in helping the business tackle inefficiencies as it has grown in size.

He added: “We explained any issues we think we can improve on and listened to all suggestions from Cube Thinking.

“The feedback has helped us to identify and remove inefficiencies in the business and benchmark ourselves against other businesses on the programme, making sure our practices are moving in line with industry standards of similar-sized businesses to us.

“We’ve made quite a few changes following the support including marketing, HR and operations. Moving forward, I believe these changes will undoubtably assist our goal of sustainable business growth.”

Amin Vepari, programme manager, Two Zero, said: “Scaling a business is not just about growing as fast as possible. As businesses expand, they need a unique set of skills and processes to continue to run as efficiently and profitably as possible.

“After a period of rapid expansion, MTB Monster has recognised this and sought support from Two Zero. I’m pleased that we have been able to help the company in preparing for further sustainable growth over the coming years.”