Pedal power - sales at Chain Reaction bike shop top €200m

Cyclists have been urged to take steps to secure their bikes

Gordon Deegan

The growth in business at the world's largest online bike store continued last year, with revenues at Chain Reaction Cycles increasing by 6pc to £153m (€206m).

However, pre-tax profits at the Co Antrim-headquartered firm decreased marginally, from £4.83m to £4.8m in the 12 months to the end of December last.

The family business, which started as a village shop, expanded into the Republic in 2011 when it established the Cork-registered Chain Reaction Cycles Ireland Ltd to provide transactional processing services on behalf of the group.

The Watson family online group sells bikes to over 100 countries worldwide and the proportion of sales outside the European Union in 2014 was 33pc.

The group paid shareholders a dividend of £1.5m last year and this followed a dividend pay-out of £1.5m in 2013.

The numbers employed at the group decreased last year from 612 to 540.

The directors state that the principal reason for the increase in revenues "was a greater volume of transactions. Sales gains were recorded in most markets, despite challenging economic conditions".

Directors

The directors state that the most appropriate measure for profitability is earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which was £6m following EBITDA of £6.6m in 2013.

Operating profits last year declined from £5.2m to £5m.

At the end of December last, the group had £26.18m in accumulated profits.