Fixed gear boutique Hubjub to cease trading?

You may remember that we recently ran a feature on road.cc about the history of online fixed gear boutique Hubjub, and we were saddened to learn today that the shop is to close. A note on the homepage of the Hubjub website says the following:

"after eight years and 10,000 or so successful sales, Hubjub is closing its doors. The last shipment from the US to Somerset arrived earlier this month. We've paid off most suppliers already, so we're under no pressure to stop trading. The site will be up at least until summer as we sell through existing stock. We're no longer doing a daily post run, but parcels are still shipping within a couple of days of order.

"We're taking care to keep the site up-to-date and (apart from some obscure spares) everything we've got is listed. If you don't see it here, we likely haven't got it.

"We'd love it if someone took over Hubjub as a going concern. Happy to discuss with any interested parties, but please note that our suppliers have indicated that they are only prepared to deal with particular kinds of new owner. Unless you have a bricks-and-mortar bikeshop that has been trading for at least a year or two, we're likely wasting each others' time if we talk about a sale."

We spoke to Will Meister, the man behind the store, and he confirmed much of what's written above. "Hubjub started in 2003 on a £1,500 overdraft," he told us. "I had got heavily involved in fixed gear, and found it stupidly difficult to buy parts in the UK. Over the next few years I steadily built up the turnover until in 2008-9 I was just about able to live on my income and still employ a parcel wrapper.

"Since then sales have been falling away as the fixed gear craze settles down, and my financial situation wasn't helped by a credit card scam that wiped out my cash reserves in 2010. The business is still profitable, but I can't make a living off Hubjub alone, and it doesn't leave me enough free time to do other stuff properly. I'm hoping that a larger business will buy Hubjub and position it as their fixed gear department."

So there you go then. If you're in a position to talk to Will about taking Hubjub over as a going concern, then send an email to sales [at] hubjub.co.uk - certainly he're at road.cc we're hoping that Hubjub will continue to fill the niche it's been very effectively serving for nearly ten years.