The Way Ahead: Phil Jones MBE & a commercial perspective

The Way Ahead: Phil Jones MBE & a commercial perspective

British domestic road racing faced serious challenges even before Covid19 decimated the 2020 calendar. How can it recover, strengthen and achieve sustainability? Enjoy part three of our in-depth investigation. You can read the full article on the Brother UK Cycling Blog.

A commercial perspective

The intersection of sporting and commercial imperatives is a fascinating topic for those who follow bike racing closely. The assembly of cycle sport’s organisational jigsaw can be as engaging as movement in the transfer market. The outcomes, with the rare exception of a superstar signing, are almost always more significant.

Phil Jones MBE, the Managing Director of Brother UK, has studied professional cycling’s commercial development closely. He has made the company the domestic’s sport’s most trusted partner by anchoring his sponsorship decisions solely on its ability to generate return on investment. As with so many areas of daily life, the pandemic has brought systemic weaknesses into the sharpest focus. Lockdown’s enforced reset is a clear opportunity for the sport to grasp the possibilities of a more sustainable future. ‘More of the same’ should not be an option, Jones believes.

“Domestic cycling operates with a boom-bust business model. That’s always been my observation of this sport. Teams don’t have much else in the way of income streams other than a sponsor diving into their pockets and laying out some money, and that in itself can become a very high-risk model that provides sustainability only from year-to-year,” he says.

“Everyone involved in domestic road racing should be engaged in re-imagining its development, whether that be the federation, teams or other stakeholders. It’s time to take a ten or 20-year view of how the sport begins to become more sustainable.”

For the leader of a major business, the necessity of a sustainable model is obvious. Brother UK’s success is built upon the pillars of efficiency, productivity, reliability and, of course, sustainability. Income streams are monitored. Opportunities are targeted and pursued. Risks are identified and captured on a matrix.

Last year, Brother UK celebrated 50 years of continuous trading; the type of longevity that any cycling team would look at with wonder, and which few British races have surpassed. Increasingly, events have become as unstable as teams. Both are almost entirely dependent on sponsorship.

“The sport’s underlying problem is having only one major revenue stream,” Jones observes. “It continues to be one of the major difficulties that it needs to fix.”

Click here to read the full article or listen to a panel of experts including Phil Jones MBE, Erick Rowsell and Larry Hickmott on the Brother UK Cycling Podcast, available now from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify.