As part of the Swindon Advertiser’s Love Local Business campaign, we caught up with Martin from Bike Treads…

Why do you think our readers should support local business?

“Given the impact of Covid-19 on local business it is important to factor in that many of the specialists trades such as ours are in need of ongoing support from the community who in turn we serve with vital repair and service facilities.

"There is a need for the economy to regain some of the lost trade during this scary period and we hope to do our bit to keep our customers on the road in these testing times.

"We have served Swindon and the surrounding area for over 34 years and will be here another 34 years if we have our way.”

What are you enjoying most about being back open?

“We are enjoying the fact we have some of the biking season left to benefit from. This along with seeing our long term customers getting back on two-wheels where many of them use this as a leisure pursuit or form of escapism from normal life. We as a team are overwhelmingly happy to be back and pushing on as we were before with no redundancies and enough work to keep us pushing on.

"The furlough scheme and government grants were essential for this, the government have done well by us! On a side note; we found great success through this pandemic with our Royal Enfield Sales and are the leading dealership in the South West with our sales figures this year.”  

What has been to toughest challenge for Bike Treads during lockdown?

“Our biggest challenge was balancing our immediate costs and negotiating with core suppliers with regards to suspending or delaying repayments to allow for time to receive government funding.

"The economic impact has been huge on the business but we have quickly regained most of our lost trade since we have been back.

"As individuals, we have seen both the best and worst from people when trying to support our key and essential workers and verbally abused by those who should have been self-isolating and not leisure riding because the roads were empty.

"This made us incredbly nervous and hesitant about springing back into business too early so have made some very large changes to our working practices and ensuring staff and customers are safe.

"We have a dedicated one-way system in our showroom with social distancing and limited surface contact being enforced. With a strict cleaning schedule to make sure we are playing our bit to help eliminate this terrible virus.”