WILLIES EXPANDS ICE HOCKEY AND FIGURE SKATING STORE IN COVENTRY

A Midlands ice sports specialist has invested £60,000 in a new 5,000 sq ft superstore in Coventry as part of a major expansion.

The new Willies retail venture at Challenge Business Park is a one-stop shop for everything ice hockey, inline hockey and figure skating, including skates, sticks, clothing and protective equipment.

The opening marks a major expansion for the company, previously based in much smaller premises in Earlsdon, close to the SkyDome Arena, home to Elite Ice Hockey League side Coventry Blaze.

Owner Luke Wilson set up the business with a friend in 2017 after being given free tickets to a Coventry Blaze game a few years earlier.

“I hadn’t played ice hockey or anything before, but after watching that first game, I was completely hooked,” said former engineer Luke, who, for the first two years, ran the company in tandem with his own building testing firm.

Joining recreational side Coventry Spitfires,

Luke got to know some ice hockey brands, who encouraged him to launch his new venture with friend Jonathan Hill, who also played ice hockey recreationally.

“We saw a gap in the market and with Jonathan’s background in retail management for brands such as Aldi, we set up the shop in Earlsdon. It involved a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Even my wife, who was eight months pregnant, helped get it all ready.”

When the pandemic hit in 2020, instead of giving up Luke and Jonathan ploughed their efforts into building an online shop to complement their physical store and invested in systems and marketing.

“It’s not in my nature to give up,” said Luke. “We put in the graft, re-fitting the shop and working with new brands, and when we reopened after lockdown, it went mad.”

Willies has gone from turning over £120,000 in 2017 to around £1.5 million in 2023. The team has also grown from two to 11, including sales assistant Calista Kou, a competition figure skater in Asia for two years who now balances her job at Willies with studying for a biosciences degree at the University of Warwick.

Luke added: “Ice hockey is my life, and my wife and kids, who are four and two, love it too,” he said.

“I can’t wait to continue on this adventure and encourage adults and kids from the community to have a go at these amazing sports.”

Pashley Cycles takes electric cargo bike into full production

Pashley Cycles is powering ahead with full production of its electric cargo tricycle, the ALECS (Articulated, Lightweight, Electric Cargo Solution).

Designed to carry 110kg securely at 25kph it has a patented tilting front section that means its rides like a bicycle but with the stability of a tricycle.

The ALECS is just 80cm wide so it can use bike lanes and faster routesand doesn’t require a licence or road tax to ride.

It is the culmination of four years of development at the Pashley factory in

Stratford-upon-Avon, where its iconic traditional bicycles and tricycles are handbuilt by a small, skilled team before being exported all over the world.

The company also makes bikes and ebikes for two of the UK’s biggest hire bike fleets – the Santander-sponsored Bike Share scheme in London (previously known as “Boris bikes”) and West Midlands Cycle Hire, operating in and around Birmingham.