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news
RCC rideSimon Mottram explains Rapha Cycling Club relaunch as brand aims for big growth in membership
In the third and final part of our interview with Rapha founder and CEO Simon Mottram, he explains how the business has repositioned its Rapha Cycling Club (RCC) membership scheme to make it more accessible to customers as part of a series of changes in the business following its change in ownership a little over two years ago.
In the previous articles in the series, Mottram shared his views on the growth of off-road and adventure cycling and how Rapha aims to harness that trend, as well as how it is reducing its reliance on discounting to restore the business to profitability.
At an event at Rapha's North London headquarters last week in which RCC members heard about new initiatives and products and were able to put their own questions to the team, road.cc asked Mottram where he saw the business in five years’ time.
He revealed that growing RCC membership by making it more affordable and less tied to locations of Rapha Clubhouses is a key part of the company’s strategy.
“We made a loss last year, our sales went backwards,” he explained. “In five years, we should be two times the size we are now and making decent profits. That’s what we have to do and what we’d like to do.
“But more interesting than results will be in five years, I’d like the RCC to be way bigger than it is now, 50,000 to 100,000 members, it should be like that.”
With 13,000 members currently, it’s an ambitious target, but one that Mottram hopes to hit through decreasing the cost of membership to a little under £6 a month – around half the current cost – and making it less dependent on location.
Making such a fundamental change to a membership package risks alienating people already signed up to it, so Mottram wrote to existing members in November explaining how RCC was evolving and why, before they heard the news elsewhere.
“We did a whole relaunch a month ago, and I wrote to members,” he explained. “So, we haven’t broadcast it, but I wrote to the members and explained it and how it's changed and essentially what we what didn't want was the RCC to be a clubhouse-specific programme.
“We've got 23 clubhouses, we may have 50 clubhouses in the future, we may have 30, it doesn't really matter.
“We won't be able to have a clubhouse everywhere where somebody who's a great Rapha customer, or someone who loves the sport, is going to be based” he continued.
“We wanted to divorce the membership benefit from being near a clubhouse, so we've reduced the price so it's more affordable for people – it’s now £70, not £135, so it is pretty significant.”
The idea, Mottram said, was to “put it into the area of somewhere that's good value for anybody who's interested in what we do and who buys a bit a bit of our products,” rather than it being reserved for the keenest customers who happen to live near one of its clubhouses.
Besides the reduction in the cost of membership, other tweaks have been made to the RCC offer, which was first launched five years agi, a decade after the business started trading in 2004 through its Rapha.cc website; the .cc domain, officially relating to the Australian territory the Cocos Islands, was chosen since it can also be taken as referring to ‘cycling club’ – the very reason we at road.cc adopted it four years later.
Mottram explained some of those changes to us. “Coffee was free to members, it’s now half-price, but we’re opening up partner cafés all over the world, where members can convene, and they get half-price coffee,” he said.
“They don't have to be in a clubhouse and we've made the price of bike hire slightly higher, so it’s not just about that either, just high rollers who go on business trips to Tokyo and San Francisco … it's an amazing service and I love that because I do that sometimes but that's not our core member.”
So, 15 years on, is Mottram still as passionate about the business as he was when it was founded?
“Totally, yes. We have more potential now than we’ve ever had, which I'm so excited about and I think we've gone for a necessary adjustment for a year or two. After the acquisition we were all, hang on a minute, we’ve been growing at 35 per cent every year for 13 years.
“I've created this very complicated and beautiful but difficult to manage thing.
"Let's just do a bit of housekeeping let's make sure that we set ourselves up in a bit more sensible way.
"Let's reset what we’re trying to do and go at it again."
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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46 comments
Sounds like I need to get a piece of this action
BoomerPornRedhead.jpeg
It seems to me that "Boomer" is now used to mean "anyone over 30" while "Millennial" means "anyone under 40". Those 30-40 can be either depending on who they have annoyed (kind of like the speed-range at which cyclists go 'too fast' and 'too slow' simultaneously)
The type of boomer who uses the word snowflake like that are usually the biggest snowflakes of them all
But I'm no boomer!
OFFENCE TAKEN!!!
According to my teenage daughter, Boomer is now extended to cover anyone who is critical of young people.
'Snowflake' is a derogatory term used by snowflakes for anyone whose sense of fairness or humanity is at odds with their own selfish and hard hearted world view, but are unable to provide cogent arguments against.
(I know I'm going circular with my argument but ...who cares, Snowflake!)
See also "virtue signalling", a term used by those without virtues to criticise those who have them, as if being virtuous ("having high moral standards") is in some way a bad thing.
So, essentially the 21st C version of 'Do-gooder'?
Actually, I think these days it is supposed to mean someone who is expressing a virtuous position to make themselves look good, rather than simply expressing a virtuous opinion.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/20/virtue-signalling-...
Anyway, topic thoroughly diverted...
I've often wondered about the precise meaning the derogatory term 'snowflake'. This discussion prompted me to look it up (on Wikipedia, of course).
Bingo.
I know Rapha's pricing and marketing angle make it an easy target for us but they have put lots into the sport - being the title sponsor of the Rapha-Condor (later Rapha-JLT) team, the Nocturne and the London crits, the Manchester to London etc, sponsoring The Cycling Podcast, putting on various other events and rides, videos, the Rapha Roadmap and probably lots more besides. The 10th Festive 500 is approaching, and they are expecting more than 100,000 entrants. Not bad for what we might describe as merely 'a poncey clothing brand'.
I remember when the RCC first launched, I got an email "inviting" me to join which was worded to sound like I'd won something, anyway I wasn't interested then at the £200 yearly sub. I didn't realise they'd knocked that down to £135 at some point, now it's down to £70. I guess they scalped all they could at each price point, I was a member of 2 local clubs back then for £20+£10 second claim and could've joined about 3 more and still been up financially with a fuck load more options of strangers to ride with and forums to shitpost on
Got to say, I've found idly following this comments thread to be a lot more entertaining than the original story.
Gosh I'm super sorry, I understand you must have been really interested in the Rapha™ cycling club and it must be upsetting to have a Premium Brand denigrated in a cycling news comments section ☹️
I expect Rapha™ can sell you a special cream for your sore bottom for the low price of £21.99
This thread would be much shorter if they sent out a sample to all job applicants.
If you're 'not bothered' then why are you spending your time demanding that I not share my experience of rapha as a business? Because it isn't going to change what I do. What are you even trying to achieve here? My aim is obvious; share my experience of rapha in contrast to their PR pieces that get run in Road.cc. what's your angle?
Er I have 'moved on' but I'm going to share what my encounter with Rapha and RCC was like when it comes up - rude, impersonal, unprofessional, and I'm not getting involved again. If it upsets you that I'm degrading your favourite brand by doing so then I couldn't really care less. It's a sham facade, and I'm sorry that anyone might miss out on a real quality cycling club experience by falling for it.
Have you? Really? Just move on; it wasn't meant to be. We're here for you.
Did I sound upset? Didn't mean to.
I am not bothered either way by Rapha, it's just another premium brand. I do not own any Rapha items. I dress cheaply and would surely be identified as an interloper/potential shoplifter if I dared to enter any kind of boutique store. I already belong to a cycling club and don't feel I'm missing out.
It does sound like you're trying to turn this single negative experience into something a little extreme. Chill out or find someone more sympathetic.
Do you think maybe they didn't like your answer to the question, "How would you deal with a situation where you've emailed a colleague about something and they fail to respond?"
The question 'how do you treat an applicant to a role after they've spent time and energy applying for and interviewing with you' would be more pertinent... Amazing how some people will start boot licking poor professionalism just because they go in for cycling clothes with some white armbands...!!
Do you actually think it's acceptable to interview someone for a role and then ghost them? Are you that much of an arsehole?
Ok, they ghosted you and that's unprofessional and you're mad. I get it. We all do. I wouldn't be happy if it happened to me. Send a mail to their HR department, get it all out and then move on to something that actually helps you achieve your aims. Either you're very blessed in life and this is your first mishap or you've got a fixation problem and I wouldn't want to date you.
As to Rapha, I couldn't care less. I see a huge cash drain and a company that fails to create sufficient value with the products they're selling. At the rate they're burning cash it won't last long.
No, I don't think it's acceptable, just like I don't think it's acceptable to call someone an arsehole for making a joke about what had become a tedious thread about your job interview.
If the hiring managers you spoke with are reading this thread, they must be glad to have dodged a bullet.
Sounds like Rapha had a lucky escape...... *whistles innocently*
The worst part of being in a club is having to figure out who the choppers are, who to avoid, who's handling is a liability and who's got the worst chat. I can't understand why anyone would want to deal with this every time any of 13,000 randoms in the club decide to turn up for the club run, let alone 50-100,000 but each to their own
Are beards mandatory?
Only if it is mono-colour and Sparta-esque...
or...
uniform grey colour and you are 55kg/whippet like and veiny arms/legs and look like you could do a few Maccy D's to make you look healthy...
Underestimating local pride is probably something they missed. Thought about joining but never did because joining "international" feels a bit like being picked last for something, in other words we where not important enough. No need for a clubhouse but either take the time to create specific memberships for more cities or just scrap the system and make it one big happy family. That would probably have a larger impact than lowering membership fees.
I was interested in Rapha and got through to an interview stage for a role. After that they just outright ghosted me. I popped emails twice asking what the deal was (obviously I hadn't got the role, but I wanted at least a 'not this time'). Nada.
I will burn off my feet before I pay money to associate with them. What a kick in the teeth. Spend hours preparing for an interview and applying, then just have the door shut in my face without even a bye bye. It was so embarassing to tell my cycling industry mates how I'd been treated. Don't believe the friendly hype, readers, it's a cash empire like any other business.
Surely that comment is better aimed at Rapha's HR department than a discussion about their club - given that it's two completely unrelated things...
I mean, it's perfectly possible that something slipped through a crack somewhere due to a staff member being off or Person A thinking that Person B has done it and vice versa. Whatever, it's nothing to do with Rapha Cycling Club.
Of course it is because this is the internet where everybody has to bring a very slightly related negative story to the table. Even if it doesn't relate to the matter in hand.
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